Mark S. Handler, 83, Was Macy’s President

Mark S. Handler, a former president and chief operating officer of Macy’s who was instrumental in its transformation from a bargain-hunter’s destination to a fashion emporium, died at his East Hampton house on July 16.

Mr. Handler, 83, who also had homes in Manhattan and Wellington, Fla., was found floating in his pool and was taken to Southampton Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, apparently of drowning. Apart from mild arthritis, he had not been ill, said his wife of 56 years, the former Barbara Justin. Police do not consider the death suspicious.

Born in Chicago on March 11, 1933, to parents of modest means, Barney Handler and the former Jule Peterson, Mr. Handler grew up to become a master merchandiser who was among the most admired retailing executives of the 1970s and ’80s. He was instrumental in the introduction of private brands, designer boutiques, the annual Macy’s flower show, black-tie in-store events in support of charities, and more.

His was “a great rags-to-riches story,” said his daughter, Jody Cooper. He was attending the University of Illinois on a basketball scholarship when his older brother was killed in an auto accident, leaving him his parents’ only child. He returned home to be with them, transferring to a community college in Chicago, Roosevelt University, which now counts him among its most distinguished alumni.

He moved to New York in 1958 after being accepted into Macy’s executive training program, and managed to accumulate enough credits for a master’s degree at New York University while working. He sent money home to his parents each week, his daughter said, and after a number of years brought them to New York to live.

His rise through the Macy’s ranks was speedy: junior assistant buyer, buyer, misses’ sportswear buyer, merchandise administrator, vice president, senior vice president, and, in less than 20 years, president and chief operating officer of Macy’s Corporation.

“Mark was one of the nicest, most gentlemanly men I’ve ever met. I was lucky enough to work for him and to be his friend,” said Ellin Saltzman, who first met Mr. Handler at the East Hampton Tennis Club, where he was a founding member, in the late ’60s. She was corporate fashion director at Macy’s  when he was its president.

“He was humble and never boastful,” his daughter said. “He helped so many of my friends launch their careers at Macy’s. Many of them now own companies of their own.”

His friends Aaron and Judy Daniels of Bridgehampton and New York called Mr. Handler “a man of style and substance; a raconteur and humorist whose kindness and generosity was unsurpassed.”

With a few other “Macy’s guys,” Mr. Handler rented a summer house on the South Fork after his first year in the city. “I was renting one with some girls,” his wife said. “One of the girls knew one of the guys, and they all came over.” The Handlers were married in 1960.  

“We stayed at Mrs. Jones’s Rooming House on the Montauk Highway for $20 a night,” she recalled. “For $2.50 more, you could get a kitchenette, so we got another couple and we split the $2.50.” In 1971, they bought a sprawling “white elephant” on Ocean Avenue in East Hampton, and never regretted it. “Mark adored it out here. He loved to walk to Main Beach, and to Georgica with the kids.”

Mr. Handler took up golf when the Atlantic Golf Club opened in Bridgehampton in 1992, and loved it — he is said to have been “an avid but adequate golfer” — but his real passion, apart from his family, may have been cooking. By all accounts, he was a great cook. “Our house was open house,” his wife said. “Every Fourth of July we had a party, every Labor Day we had a pasta party. We had a lot of dinner parties — he made the most delicious duck.”

“Most people call their mothers for recipe advice, I called my father,” Ms. Cooper said. “He would walk me step by step through recipes on the phone. He cooked pasta sauce all day for the Labor Day party.”

“He was my confidant, my sounding board, my best, best audience,” she added. “We talked almost every day.”

 In addition to his wife and daughter, who lives in Chicago, Mr. Handler leaves a son, Jon Handler of Half Moon Bay, Calif., and four grandchildren. More than 150 mourners attended funeral services on July 20 at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. Burial followed at Cedar Lawn Cemetery in East Hampton.

Memorial donations have been suggested to the East Hampton Ladies Village Improvement Society, 95 Main Street, East Hampton 11937.