Donald Carr, 4day Tire Stores Co-Founder, Dies : Funeral: The Newport resident succumbed to leukemia at 58. He helped establish innovative chain in 1969.

Donald Carr, co-founder of the innovative 4day Tire Stores chain, was buried earlier this week after a private funeral service. The 58-year-old Newport Beach resident died Sunday at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian after a battle with leukemia.

In 1968, Carr co-founded Lansdale & Carr, an Irvine-based company that eventually included the 4day chain, Shamrock Golf Shops, Macho Tire Co. and an advertising agency. Co-founder Phil Lansdale died in 1990.

Carr, who earned a bachelor’s degree from USC in 1958 and a master’s degree from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business in 1964, founded 4day in 1969 after running a small, Los Angeles-based tire store chain.

The 4day chain grew from Carr’s love of the tire business and co-founder Phil Lansdale’s experience in advertising and marketing.

“It was Phil’s marketing idea, but Don had the working knowledge of how to put it into effect,” said Pete Lewis, president of the Lansdale, Carr & Baum advertising agency. “There isn’t a business that you can get into that’s more boring than the tire business, but Don brought an enormous amount of character to the business.”

The 4day chain was, as its name suggests, open four days each week, and closed Sunday through Tuesday. It is one of the largest independent chains in the United States with about 50 locations in California and Texas.

Carr was a hands-on manager at the tire and golf store businesses, Lewis said. “He’d been battling the leukemia for quite a while,” Lewis said. “It had been under control, but in the last year or so, he became increasingly ill.”

Carr is survived by his wife, Barbara and three children, Tim, Ken and Cheryl. The family has asked that donations be made in memory of Carr to the Hoag Hospital Foundation and St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach. The family also directed donations to Balboa Sailing, a organization that is supporting the round-the-world sailboat race entry by Carr’s doctor, Newport Beach oncologist Neil Barth.

A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Aug. 1 at St. Andrew’s Church in Newport Beach.