The company operated stores in such communities as Covina, El Segundo, Tustin, Murrieta, Norco, Oceanside, Laguna Niguel and Moorpark, among others.
“He was a great man — one of those great men torn from the pages of time.”
“He was loving, kindhearted and giving … always wanting to help people,” his wife Karen said. “He loved his family, his business and his employees. He was kind to all of them.” In 1968, he bought the company from his grandparents at the age of 21, becoming president and CEO. Eight years later, he moved Chick’s into a 22,000-square-foot space that previously housed a supermarket. Most of his competitors’ stores were in spaces of 2,000 to 5,000 square feet.
That “quiet confidence” served him well. Under his leadership, Chick’s went head to head with such competitors as Sport Chalet, a La Cañada Flintridge-based chain that shuttered all 47 of its stores in 2016, and Big 5 Sporting Goods, an El Segundo-based retailer that still operates more than 400 locations in 11 Western states.
Margaret Protteau, who served as Chick’s executive assistant for 35 years, described her role as “a dream job.” “For someone who worked so hard for so long, he set the standard for what an entrepreneur should be — working long hours, taking risks, researching his industry and taking successes and failures in stride,” Tyler Chick said. “To us, he was a father, a grandfather and the central pillar that held our family together.”
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