Newton J. Hale, 83; Ex-Store Executive

Newton Johnston Hale, a former board chairman of Hale Bros. Inc. of San Francisco and retired director of Carter Hawley Hale Stores Inc., died last week at the age of 83 after a long illness, it was revealed Tuesday.

Hale, who died Sept. 18 in Hillsborough, was a Stanford graduate who joined his family’s department store chain in 1922.

Broadway Department Stores of Los Angeles acquired the stock of Hale Bros. Inc. in 1950 and formed a statewide chain. Hale Bros. then consisted of six department stores in Northern California. The merged firm quickly expanded and in 1974 its name was changed to Carter Hawley Hale Stores Inc.

The company now operates 287 department and specialty stores across the nation under the names of Broadway, Emporium Capwell, Weinstock’s, Thalheimers and John Wanamaker, in addition to high fashion stores including Neiman-Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Holt Renfrew and Contempo Casuals.

Hale is survived by his wife, Betty, of Hillsborough, two daughters, Mrs. Edward H. McLaughlin Jr. of Los Angeles and Mrs. Edward Harvard Jr. of Menlo Park, and a sister, Mrs. Oliver C. Field of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Services were private.