Kenneth Macke’s astronomical ascension from teenage shoe salesman in Carroll to Drake University quarterback to the upper echelon of American business as the top Target executive during that chain’s high-jumping years ranks him among the most successful people from Carroll County in its history.

When Macke retired in 1994, Dayton Hudson, the parent company of Target, had annual revenue of more than $19 billion.Accolades for Macke, who died at age 69 last weekend from complications associated with Parkinson’s disease, poured in from around the nation — from friends with Carroll ties to leading lights in business, such as Warren Buffett’s attorney, Ron Olson, the cable business news channel CNBC, to a in a feature obituary in Tuesday’s New York Times – which had front-page display on the newspaper’s Web site.

Bill Evans, the longtime Carroll educator now retired in Phoenix, Ariz., said in a phone interview that he’s known many accomplished Carroll natives.

“Macke was on the top of that pyramid, wasn’t he,” Evans said.

Macke’s brother, Jim Macke of Carroll, 11 years younger, said Kenneth serves as a role model for the extended Macke family — that his drive and success were contagious.

“He had that personality, an exceptional personality, that just radiated,” Evans said.

That factored into Jim Macke’s first mental image of his brother after hearing of the death.

“There was a major magazine with his picture on the cover,” Jim Macke said. “I saw that. He has pictures with the presidents and Buffett. He ran in a pretty unique circle.”

Kenneth Anthony Macke was born in Carroll on Dec. 16, 1938, a son of Leonard and Carol Macke. His father worked for years for wholesale distributor Farner-Bocken, and his mother, a homemaker, died at age 36 when Macke was a junior in high school.

A multi-sport star in the 1950s at Carroll High School, Macke was one of the best athletes to hail from the city, according to Evans. He earned a scholarship to Drake University where he cut an unusual figure for quarterback in that period: 6-1 and 230 pounds.

That made him probably the largest quarterback in Division 1 football then, said Evans. At the time, Drake played schools like Iowa State and Colorado and Oklahoma State.

“He played linebacker on defense,” said college roommate and lifelong friend Ron Olson, a Manilla, Iowa, native now living in Pasadena, Calif. “There weren’t too many quarterbacks who played linebackers.”

Evans, a Drake basketball star who went on to mentor generations of kids in Carroll, recalled talking to the Drake coaches about Macke.

“He’s not going to run 100 yards in the fastest time or make open-field plays,” Evans said. “But I guarantee once you have him on your team, he’s going to be a leader.”

Olson recalled the old-school practices of the 1950s in which two players competing for a starting job would be thrown into a pit, with the one emerging getting the spot.

“That was pretty tough going,” said Olson, who played halfback.

He remembers a strategy the two Drake friends employed to surreptitiously hydrate themselves at practice as coaches wouldn’t let players drink water in an effort to toughen them.

Olson and Macke would bury lemons in the field the night before, dig them out when coaches weren’t looking the next day and chomp on the fruit for the fluids.

Evans and Jim Macke said Kenneth Macke had an opportunity to play in the Canadian Football League but opted for the world of business.

Macke joined Dayton’s in 1961 as a merchandise trainee and began a 33-year career in retailing, rising through the ranks to head merchant positions at Dayton’s and Target. In 1976, he was named president and CEO of Target and in 1977 was named chairman and CEO. During his tenure, Target grew from 49 stores in nine states to 137 stores in 16 states and became the corporation’s top profit-maker.

In 1981, he was elected president of Dayton Hudson Corporation and in 1983 became its CEO.

Macke’s first job was as a 15-year-old shoe salesman in Carroll, working for the late Max Reed at Anderson’s Shoes.

“Max Reed had a tremendous influence,” said Jim Macke. “[Kenneth] learned how to deal with customers.”

During the decade he was chairman and CEO of Dayton Hudson, the company grew from 350 stores to 909 stores in 33 states and revenues more than doubled to over $19 billion. Macke was instrumental in the major acquisitions of Ayr-Way, FedMart, Gemco and Gold Circle/Richway; and in the consolidation of the department stores.

Ann Barkelew, a Macke friend and the vice president of corporate communications for Dayton Hudson for more than a decade, said Macke was proudest of helping shape strategies for the company’s three largest divisions: Target’s growth and move into California, the Northwest and the southeastern United States; the acquisition of Marshall Field’s; the successful defeat of an attempted takeover of Dayton Hudson, and working with and mentoring employees. During that time, the company was named “America’s Best Managed Company” by Forbes magazine.

“He was always very sensitive to being sure that everyone got taken care of,” Barkelew said. “Whenever I would go shopping at one Macy’s, the suit guys would come up and say, `How is Ken?’”

Barkelew said she staffed Macke for analyst speeches in New York City and helped coordinate his popular appearances on “The Today Show” before Christmas to talk about the retail scene and trends for the shopping seasons.

“One of my great challenges was beating him to the local NBC station,” Barkelew said.

Macke’s commitment to provide opportunities for women and minorities brought national recognition to Dayton Hudson as being among the 100 Best Companies to Work for in America, 100 Companies Providing the Most Opportunities for Hispanics and 50 Best Companies for Hispanic Women.

Barkelew said women and minorities thrived under Macke’s leadership, not because he had specific diversity goals in mind, but because he looked to hire the best people without regard for race or gender.

“He just did it,” Barkelew said. “He did not go about it intentionally.”

“The truth of it is he didn’t think about it that way,” said Boake Sells, the president and COO of Dayton Hudson from 1983 to 1987. “He just hired the best people and supported them.”

Added Sells, “He was very down to earth. He never ever was a big shot. He was the kind of guy who people loved.”

Macke was named by many publications and groups as one of America’s best managers.

Olson, the former roommate, went on to be highly successful in his own right, graduating from Michigan Law School, earning a fellowship to Oxford University and working for the U.S. government in civil rights during the heady days of the 1960s. He’s now an attorney in the Los Angeles area with investment icon Warren Buffett as a client. Additionally, Olson serves on the board of directors of specialty regional insurer Berkshire Hathaway.

“People tend to classify people as either heart people or head people,” Olson said. “Well, Kenny was both.”

Through the years, Olson, and Macke shared western Iowa roots with success on larger professional stages.

“I think there’s a lot of what we grew up with in western Iowa,” Olson said. “Part of it is just as simple as you learn how to work. That’s an important aspect of anyone’s career. You learn how to work, and you learn how to respect people. Growing up as he and I did, you really didn’t have a sense of anyone being rich or poor. You didn’t have to have someone validated by some fancy credential. It’s a place of very few excesses. I think that’s wonderful.”

Sells, a Fort Dodge native, recalled playing basketball against Macke and Carroll High School in the 1950s. In one contest, CHS won 62-60 — a score Sells remembered instantly when asked during a phone interview from his home in Naples, Fla., where he remains involved in business through venture capital pursuits.

“The only reason I remember that score is because Macke remembered it,” Sells said. “Macke and I played basketball against each other once. Carroll won, and he never let me forget it.”

Opponents on a high school court for a night, Sells and Macke worked closely during some of Dayton Hudson’s best years.

“One of the most defining parts of Macke is as a merchant,” Sells said. “He could walk into any store and just stand in the front of it and start telling you what was right or wrong with it.”

For his part, Macke served as a trustee of Drake University and was a director of the Walker Art Center and the Urban Coalition of Minneapolis. In 1989, he chaired the United Way annual campaign, breaking all records for annual fund drives and, in 1993, chaired the board of the Greater Minneapolis United Way.

He served as a director of General Mills, Carlson Companies, Unisys, First Bank, The Pillsbury Company, McGlynn Bakeries and Duckwall.

After his retirement, he moved to the Napa Valley in northern California and continued to mentor and invest in retail entrepreneurs.

“My dad was a born merchant” said his son, Jeff. “He was passionate about showing respect for every customer who walked in the door by giving them superior service and a clean place to shop. It sounds simple, but most brilliant ideas in retail are. By running the nicest stores in the discount world, Target clearly defined its niche and became one of the best companies in America. My dad absolutely loved working on Target and walking the aisles `undercover’ at every opportunity. Dad’s influence remains an inescapable part of the Target experience. I feel it especially when I go with my kids and tell them how `Grandpa helped make this place.’”

When he retired in 1994, Kenneth Macke told The New York Times that it was time to get off the corporate treadmill. “I have spent my entire career marching to a calendar,” he said, adding, “My fondest wish is that I will have the willpower to do nothing.”