In 1894, his father gave him a role in managing a gypsum plant in a small town in Michigan. Avery changed the name to
Alabaster Company, after the town, because he liked the sound of it. This was one of several companies that in 1901 became part of the consolidated gypsum concern
United States Gypsum Company. Then working as a sales manager in Buffalo, Avery became president in 1905. He kept that position until 1936, managing the company through extended growth. After that, he served as chairman of the company until 1951. With his brother Waldo Avery, he was a 3.6% stakeholder in USG. Noticing his success,
J. P. Morgan & Co. invited him on to the board of US Steel in 1931. That same year, at the beginning of the
Depression, Morgan & Co. invited Avery to take on the challenge of re-establishing the profitability of
Montgomery Ward, of which it owned a majority, offering Avery a generous salary and stock options. After rapid expansion of retail outlets through the 1920s, from 10 stores in 1926 to 554 in 1930, it was rapidly losing money. Avery began as chairman by cost cutting and closing stores, replacing catalog managers with experienced chain-store managers, and reducing lines that were losing money. His strong control and caution worked against him as the company began to recover in the mid-1930s, when he might have allowed some expansion, but he believed the economy too fragile. Avery followed up on his early support and served as the first president of the
Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. He supported politically conservative causes. He was a
financier of the
American Liberty League and a national adviser for one of its
front organizations,
the Crusaders. Avery gave generously to the
Church League of America (CLA). He was one of many successful businessmen who did not favor the
New Deal of President
Franklin D. Roosevelt. A species of venomous
coral snake,
Micrurus averyi, is named in his honor. During
World War II, Avery repeatedly opposed actions of Roosevelt's
National War Labor Board and opposed
labor unions. He resisted signing a contract after a union had won representation for 7,000 of Montgomery Ward's employees until twice ordered by Roosevelt. When Avery refused to settle a strike in 1944, endangering the delivery of essential goods, Roosevelt's administration used emergency measures to remove him from office and temporarily seize the company; in April 1944 two soldiers had to pick him up by an arm each and carry him out of his office. Avery yelled at the Attorney General, who had flown to meet with him and try to avert a showdown, "To hell with the government, you... New Dealer!" Soon Sears far outperformed Montgomery Ward; by 1951 it had more than double the business volume and had surpassed Montgomery Ward in retail stores, while Avery was prepared to weather a depression. Even after Avery resigned in 1954 as president, MW never regained its former position. He died in 1960, leaving an estate of $20 million (before taxes) to two daughters and seven grandchildren, according to filed inheritance tax returns. ==Legacy==