--- description: From a Chicago hospital bed last week, cancer-stricken Sewell Lee Avery, 85, cut his final tie to Montgomery Ward & Co. as a new era of expansion began for the giant mail-order house. Avery, the... title: Business: Avery Out, Expansion Up image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # Business: Avery Out, Expansion Up by [TIME](/author/time/) May 4, 1959 4:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) May 4, 1959 4:00 AM CUT From a Chicago hospital bed last week, cancer-stricken Sewell Lee Avery, 85, cut his final tie to Montgomery Ward & Co. as a new era of expansion began for the giant mail-order house. Avery, the reactionary chairman of Ward’s for 23 years until he resigned under pressure in 1955, finally quit as a director. At the annual meeting, shortly after the news was announced, Chairman John Andrew Barr, 50, told about the aggressive expansion program. It will use up the last of the $226 million that Sewell Avery hoarded from 1947 to 1955 in his belief that the U.S. was destined for a crash. This year and next, Ward’s will build 30 retail department stores, about 85 catalogue stores, four distribution centers. By the end of 1963, it will add a total of 90 new retail stores, 205 new catalogue stores, ten new distribution centers. Gearing for the expansion, Ward’s boosted Executive Vice President Paul M. Hammaker, 56, to president; Chairman Barr gave up the presidency, remains chief executive. Ward’s weighty wager on the future will cost $500 million over the next five years. It has reason for confidence; Ward’s sales (1958 total: $1.1 billion) rode 19% ahead of last year’s in February and March, will probably show a 14% gain for April, “We are on the eve of a decade of great economic activity,” said Chairman Barr. “We would not embark on a program of this scope if we did not have great faith in the future of our economy.” Business: Avery Out, Expansion Up ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6827565/business-avery-out-expansion-up/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6827565/business-avery-out-expansion-up/"},"headline":"Business: Avery Out, Expansion Up","datePublished":"1959-05-04T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-13T06:52:08.249Z","description":"From a Chicago hospital bed last week, cancer-stricken Sewell Lee Avery, 85, cut his final tie to Montgomery Ward & Co. as a new era of expansion began for the giant mail-order house. Avery, the...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6827565/business-avery-out-expansion-up/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6827565/business-avery-out-expansion-up/","name":"Business: Avery Out, Expansion Up"}}]}] ```