Ann Kohl Meyers Remembered
Ann Kohl Meyers, former vice president of Allied Stores, died recently after an eight-year battle with cancer. She was 74.
Meyers was one of the first female senior executives for a major retail corporation. She was involved in many philanthropic activities, including the Fashion Group Foundation and the annual American Cancer Society Relay for Life. She served for two years as regional director of the Fashion Group International’s Palm Springs, Calif., division.
She began her career in the fashion industry as a dress buyer for the Killian Co. in her hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She then moved to Los Angeles and assumed the role of marketing and sales director for Stanley Sherman, an established designer at the time.
Meyers rejoined her first employer when Allied Stores bought Killian. Allied asked her to head its Los Angeles resident buying office.
In the late 1970s, Meyers was promoted to vice president at Allied Stores, whose holdings included May Co., JW Robinsons, Lord & Taylor, Bonwit Teller and Bon Marcheacute;.
“She was a pioneer in going from buying to management,” remembered Ilse Metchek, executive director of the California Fashion Association. “She was tough with a no-nonsense personality. She was a solid businesswoman and got where she did because she was good.”
Metchek also recalled Meyers’ dedication, saying Meyers commuted to downtown Los Angeles from Newport Beach, Calif., “and never missed a day.”
Metchek also remembered that they “never had an argument in 40 years.”
Soon after retiring in 1985, Ann Kohl married a former Allied Stores colleague, Robert Meyers. Mr. Meyers died of a heart attack in 1989.
Up to the end, Meyers was valiant in the face of her illness.
“No one fought cancer like she did,” said Metchek. “She had a will to live that I’ve never seen in someone with cancer.”
Meyers passed away in a hospital in La Quinta, Calif. She is survived by two grandsons, Ryan and Eric Peterson, and numerous friends in Los Angeles, New York, London and Iowa. —Christian M. Chensvold
