Founder of Williams-Sonoma dies at 100

Associated Press

Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015 | 3:56 p.m.
San Francisco €”

Chuck Williams, who founded Williams-Sonoma and brought French cookware
to the United States, has died. He was 100.

The home goods retailer said Williams died peacefully of natural causes
Saturday.

A two-week trip to Paris in 1953 inspired him to open his first
Williams-Sonoma store in Sonoma, California, three years later.

He filled the shop off Sonoma's town square with pots and pans, white
porcelain ovenware, country earthenware and other French cooking tools.

Williams' first store was such an enormous success that in 1958, he
relocated to a 3,000-square foot store in San Francisco, next to the
city's bustling Union Square shopping district.

Julia Child's landmark 1961 cookbook, "Mastering the Art of French
Cooking," and her cooking show on television sent cooks interested in
French cuisine to Williams-Sonoma.