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Edward G. Gardner, a trailblazing businessman within the magnificence business because the co-founder of Smooth Sheen Merchandise, has handed away, reviews the Chicago Solar-Occasions. He was 98.
Gardner’s passing was confirmed by his kids in a press release.
“He was born with the internal imaginative and prescient to see the world in another way, however extra importantly, to see and make a distinction to what he noticed,” his son, Gary Gardner stated.”He was my father, my hero, and my trainer. He taught me the best way to have interaction individuals with humanity and humility.”
Born on February 25, 1925, in Chicago, Gardner graduated from Fenger Excessive College earlier than leaving for the Military throughout World Warfare II. Utilizing his GI Invoice, he acquired a bachelor’s diploma at Chicago Academics School, now Chicago State College, and went on to earn a grasp’s in training from the College of Chicago.
Upon graduating, he turned an administrator within the Chicago Public Colleges. Whereas maintaining his job within the faculty district, he started delivering hair care merchandise out of the trunk of his automobile to magnificence salons on the South Aspect of Chicago at night time.
Terri Gardner, his daughter, recalled how her father used the household’s cookware to conduct his experiments.
“He melted wax in one of many pans,” she stated. “We by no means bought the wax out of the pan. It needed to exit within the alley. … My mom let him know that the pans had been off limits as a result of we wanted to eat.”
After a number of experiments executed at residence and listening to Black girls share their hair care wants, Garner resigned from his place within the faculty district and launched Smooth Sheen in 1964 alongside along with his spouse Bettiann. With merchandise resembling Care Free Curl and Extremely Sheen, Smooth Sheen turned a multi-million greenback empire that employed over 400 individuals. By the Nineteen Eighties, the corporate was the largest Black-owned company in America and was named “Firm of the 12 months” by Black Enterprise journal in 1989.
After over 30 years in enterprise, Smooth Sheen Merchandise was acquired by L’Oréal’s New York-based U.S. subsidiary, Cosmair Inc, for over $160 million in 1998.
Along with his contributions to the wonder business, Gardner was a beneficiant patron of the humanities. He and Bettiann led the event of the New Regal Theater, a revamped model of the Regal Theater, considered one of Chicago’s most heralded venues, which hosted among the most famous acts throughout the county.
As an activist, he helped to boost over $300,000 and workers to mount a marketing campaign that registered greater than 200,000 which led to Harold Washington changing into Chicago’s first Black mayor in 1983.
In 2012, Gardner led over 1,000 demonstrators in a mass protest at a significant building website within the metropolis’s South Aspect for the shortage of Black staff on the firm. He additionally established Black On Black Love, a non-profit that addressed violence in Chicago.
Gardner was additionally a co-owner of the Chicago Bulls and served as a board member of Chicago United and the Chicago City League.
We at EBONY prolong our prayers and deepest condolences to the household and buddies of Edward. G Gardner
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