L.A. Burcham; Worked to Top of Woolworth

Lester A. Burcham, who began as a management trainee for the F.W. Woolworth Co. and retired as its chairman and chief executive officer, has died at 73.

Burcham died Saturday in Winston-Salem, N.C., the company said Monday. The cause of death was not disclosed.

Burcham began working for Woolworth in 1931 in Cleveland and rose steadily through the company ranks.

In 1936 he was named manager of the Woolworth store in Bellefontaine, Ohio, and became a district manager in 1945 after managing three other stores. He became merchandise manager in 1948, merchandise supervisor in 1952 and assistant regional vice president in Cleveland in 1954.

Burcham moved to Woolworth’s corporate headquarters in New York in 1955 and became regional vice president of Woolworth’s mid-Atlantic region in Philadelphia in 1957.

In 1958 he returned to New York as corporate vice president, became a member of the board of directors in 1961, was elected executive vice president in 1962 and named president in 1965.

In 1970 Burcham became chairman and chief executive and held those positions until his retirement in 1977. He remained on the board of directors until 1985.