Norman Wechsler, 89; Saks Fifth Avenue, I. Magnin Executive

Norman Wechsler, 89, the department store executive who once headed the elegant San Francisco-based I. Magnin, died of heart failure Wednesday in San Francisco.

The son of a coat manufacturer, Wechsler graduated from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

As a young man, he walked into Saks Fifth Avenue and told the store’s chairman, “What I want is your job.”

Wechsler worked at Detroit-based Hudson, Sacramento-based Weinstock and Los Angeles’ Robinson’s department store chains before becoming president of Saks in New York.

In the mid-1970s, Wechsler was named president and chairman of I. Magnin, where he oversaw the opening of 24 new stores and doubled sales before retiring in 1981.

The I. Magnin chain was liquidated in 1995.