WILMINGTON, N.C. -- Carolina gasoline and convenience store pioneer W. Cecil Worsley Jr. has passed away. Worsley, 82, died Tuesday in Wilmington, N.C., after a brief illness, reported The Star News Online.
For 40 years, Worsley was president and CEO of what became The Worsley Cos., an enterprise that grew from a few small-town gas stations into a network of more than 140 c-stores and related businesses, with more than 1,000 employees.
"Cecil was one the top marketers from way back when—jobbers, they used to call them," Gary Harris, director of the North Carolina Petroleum [image-nocss] Marketers Association, told the newspaper. Worsley had served as the state association's president in the early 1990s, Harris said, and in 1996 received its highest honor, the Will Parker Memorial Award.
Worsley's father, Walter Cecil Worsley, was a distributor, based in Wallace for what was then American Oil Co. In 1946, the younger Worsley launched an oil company of his own, consisting of one service station and a warehouse, in Burgaw. This business proved successful enough that he added a station and warehouse in Elizabethtown within a year, said the report.
In 1954, Worsley succeeded his father as president of Worsley Oil Co., the same year the company went into the propane business. In 1956, he launched a separate company, Twin Petroleum in Wallace, as a distributor for Esso products. Beginning in the late 1960s, under Worsley's leadership, the company began acquiring other oil companies in the Carolinas, Tennessee and Florida, eventually controlling 12 satellite companies in all.
In 1974, noting changes in the retail market, Worsley and his company decided to convert their existing stations into c-stores. Bill Hussey, an employee, won an in-house contest to suggest a name for the stores, coming up with "Scotchman." The first Scotchman opened for business in Maple Hill that year, the report said.
In 1980, Worsley opened a corporate office on New Centre Drive in Wilmington. A new corporate headquarters opened on Cardinal Drive three years later. In 1985, the company branched into the truck stop business, eventually owning two in North Carolina, one in South Carolina and two in Florida.
In 1994, Worsley was succeeded as president and CEO by his son, Walter Cecil Worsley III, said the report. He retained the title of chairman of the board. The following year, the company decided to consolidate, selling properties in Tennessee and Florida. It kept a chain of Scotchman Stores, as well as Young's Food Stores, S-E Food Marts, a transport company and its proprietary fuel line, Carolina Petro.
Worsley is survived by his wife, Nancy Blackwelder Worsley; one brother, Donald Worsley of Elizabethtown; three children; eight grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren, said the Star News.
CSP Daily News sends condolences to his family, friends and colleagues.
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