Purdy-Kresge Library with a five and ten cent store that opened in 1899 in Downtown Detroit and now there are thousands of K-mart stores in the U.S. and in other countries. Also being a successful business man Kresge was a philanthropist. When The Kresge Foundation was founded in 1924, he thought his gains would be able to better mankind. The Kresge Foundation has donated millions of dollars to many colleges and organizations but the foundation is also known as a “bricks and mortar” foundation because it helped institutions and non-profit organizations. In 1949, the trustees of The Kresge Foundation offered Wayne State
S. S. Kresge old, he was educated in the local public schools, the Fairview Academy, in Brodheadsville, Pennsylvania, and at the Eastman Business College, from which he graduated in March 1889. Following his graduation, he clerked in a hardware store for two years, then worked as a traveling salesman from 1892 to 1897. On March 20, 1897, Kresge began working for James G. McCrory, the founder of J.G. McCrory's, at a five and ten cent store in Memphis, Tennessee. He continued there for two years. In 1899 he founded his own company, with Charles J. Wilson, with an $8,000 investment in two five-and-ten-cent