William E. Aubuchon Jr., at 91; ran family chain of hardware stores

As the chain grew from 33 stores when he took over the business from his father to 136 throughout New England and in New York State, the trip grew to about 4,500 miles, which he dutifully drove with colleagues every September, December, and March.

"What I learned from him was the fun of knowing who each person was in each store from a personal point of view," said M. Marcus Moran Jr., president of Aubuchon Hardware. Mr. Aubuchon wanted to learn about each worker's family and about the employee's career aspirations, Moran said, and also spent hours discussing the nuts and bolts of making each store more successful.

"He always promoted from within, so you always had something to talk about in going forward," Moran said.

Mr. Aubuchon, who for 43 years ran the business his father started 99 years ago, died in his Fitchburg home Monday of complications from a stroke. He was 91 and had stepped down from running the company in 1993.

Groomed by his French-Canadian immigrant father to lead the business, Mr. Aubuchon was schooled from afar when he served in the Army during World War II and was posted in the Philippines. Thrice-weekly missives from his father kept Mr. Aubuchon apprised of how things were going with Aubuchon Hardware, which had increased stores, even through the Depression.

"He saved every letter and put them in a three-ring binder when he got home," said his son, William E. Aubuchon III, who is now chief executive of the company. "By just reading the letters from my grandfather to his son, you could deduce his love for him."

Born in Fitchburg, Mr. Aubuchon graduated from Assumption Preparatory School and Assumption College, both in Worcester.

When he returned from the war, he rejoined the family business and spent decades emphasizing the family aspect.

"The two of them had a very, very respectful relationship," his son said. "Here's my dad looking at the success of his father. . . . He knew he couldn't duplicate the initial entrepreneurial business start, but he looked at carrying on the family name. That became paramount to him all his life."

Today, Moran said, 20 family members work with the Aubuchon Hardware chain.

"This region is rich with family businesses, but this is an example of a smaller company that has become a very large business, but is still grounded in family," said David McKeehan, president of the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce, based in Fitchburg. "That's not easy to sustain."

During the 43 years he led Aubuchon Hardware, Mr. Aubuchon also was president of another family business, Aubuchon Realty Co.

Among many civic activities, he also served on the boards of banks and Burbank Hospital in Fitchburg and on the Board of Trustees at Assumption College, where Aubuchon Hall was named for him. A dormitory building also was named in his honor at Fitchburg State College, which along with Worcester State had awarded Mr. Aubuchon honorary degrees.

"He was quite a force in the local communities," McKeehan said. "When he talked, the community listened. He was such a consummate businessman. But he was so focused on his business, it's hard to understand how he managed his community involvement."

With the chain of hardware stores, "the biggest thing was to manage the detail," said Moran. "The detail is the detail. It's just getting right down to one step at a time."

That meant continually examining each item the stores carried and carefully planning where it was displayed. To Mr. Aubuchon, merchandise did not exist in a vacuum, Moran said. There had to be a reason why each item sat on the shelf next to the items on either side.

And while he almost always talked business - even during those tours of the chain's stores each fall, winter, and spring - the discussions were hardly dry, Moran said.

"This in not corny, this is the truth," Moran said. "You're having fun running the business, so to talk about business continually was to extend the fun of it. There's always a better way to do something."

One way Mr. Aubuchon kept the business front and center was by simply including it as part of his daily correspondence.

"He had a rigorous approach to the fact that anytime anyone's name with whom he was familiar appeared in the local newspaper, he would clip it out and send it to other people," McKeehan said. "I got many, many handwritten notes with these clippings, but invariably, there was always with it an advertisement for Aubuchon Hardware."

In addition to his son, Mr. Aubuchon leaves his wife of 64 years, Camille (Corriveau); another son, Donat of Shrewsbury; three daughters, Mariette Young of Lee, N.H., Laure of New York City, and Anne O'Rourke of Stamford, Conn.; a sister, Claire Moran of Fitchburg; a brother, Peter of Fitchburg; eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

A funeral Mass will be said at 11 a.m. tomorrow in Immaculate Conception Church in Fitchburg. Burial will be in St. Joseph's Cemetery in Fitchburg.