SASKATOON -- A beloved member of the city's Mayfair neighbourhood has died.

Bruce Thomas owned and operated Mayfair Hardware for 70 years before deciding to retire last May.

He died last week at the age of 89.

"I’ve never worked for anybody in my life," Thomas said In a June 2019 inteview with CTV News.

"I got the idea into my head I wanted to drop out of school, so my parents OK’d that,” Thomas said, explaining how he got his start.

"Some of them at Bedford Road Collegiate, they were telling me that I was making a mistake and everything, but it worked out OK for me quitting school."

Thomas and his father opened the store on June 26, 1949. His father worked alongside him until his death in 1961.