D. Larry Sherman
Sherman Shoes, Inc. - Birmingham, MI
1989-91, Chairman of Board of Directors

Sherman is retired president of the former Sherman Shoes, Inc., Birmingham, MI, a men’s specialty shoe chain located in suburban towns, malls and leased shoe departments throughout Michigan. He joined his family’s shoe business after graduating from University of Michigan. Sherman is also a former chairman of the Michigan Retailers Association, first elected to MRA’s board in 1982. He was named “Business Person of the Year” by the Birmingham-Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce in 1992. Subsequently, he chaired the Michigan Retailers Foundation's “Links to a Legacy” fund-raising campaign. Sherman advocated strongly for retailers, whom he urged to operate with ever-greater efficiency – which, to Sherman, meant lean staffs, improved buying techniques, regular education and training to increase sales, and up-to-date business equipment.

Sherman served on NSRA’s Board of Directors for 14 years prior to being elected as Chairman of the Board in 1989, and for many years following the end of his term in 1991. Sherman was a pioneer and proponent of introducing technology for independent retailers, and served as the chairman of NSRA’s Technology committee. In the early ‘80s, Sherman was instrumental in organizing a group of six NSRA members to evaluate several personal computer software packages and run them through a test on handling of purchase orders, receiving, sales and meaningful footwear reports with test data the committee supplied, to see which could handle the unique size matrix of the shoe retailer. At that time three systems were approved by the committee, which updates are still in existence today. CSI Systems (now RICS), Profits (now Retail Star), and FRAME (now Imagine).