( CNN ) American suburbanites who can do all their shopping without getting wet , driving from point-to-point or looking for a new place to park , can give much of the credit to Alfred Taubman . Taubman , a real estate developer who helped change the face of suburban life by popularizing upscale indoor shopping malls , died Friday at the age of 91 . The announcement was made by his son , Robert Taubman , the chairman , president and chief executive officer of Taubman Centers Inc. , the company his father founded 65 years ago . A. Alfred Taubman -- his first name was Adolph -- was born January 31 , 1924 , in Michigan to German Jewish immigrants who hit hard times during the Great Depression . `` I started working when I was 9 , '' he told an interviewer in 2007 . `` I really wanted to make some money . '' An Army Air Force veteran of World War II , he studied architecture at the University of Michigan and Lawrence Institute of Technology near Detroit , and worked for an architectural firm , but decided that drawing was n't the path to success . `` I wanted to build . '' In his autobiography , `` Threshold Resistance : The Extraordinary Career of a Luxury Retailing Pioneer , '' Taubman said that when he `` looked over the horizon , I saw that there was money to be made by people who could build and own stores or , better yet , groups of stores . '' He founded the Taubman Co. in 1950 and began to demonstrate what the company 's website calls an `` ability to assess and overcome threshold resistance -- a phrase he coined to describe the psychological and physical barriers that keep a shopper from entering a store . '' As the post-war growth of suburbia continued , retail developers like Taubman began to consider what that might mean : More and more people needed places to shop . Taubman embarked on multi-store developments in the 1950s , in places like Flint and Taylor , Michigan , and in 1961 broke ground on his first large mall , the 350,000-square-foot Arborland project in Ann Arbor . `` Demographically , I looked at the numbers , and as far as I was concerned we could n't miss , '' he recalled in 2007 . `` And we did n't . '' Indeed not . This year , Forbes estimated his net worth at $ 3.1 billion , and the company 's U.S. malls generate average annual sales of $ 809 per square foot , according to the company 's website . But if Alfred Taubman gained fame and amassed billions as one of the people who helped define suburban life , he gained notoriety along the way , as well . In 1983 , he bought the renowned international auction house Sotheby 's . And in 2002 he was jailed following a conviction for conspiring with rival auction house Christie 's to fix auction house commission rates to maximize profits . He was released in 2003 after having served nine months in prison . He always maintained his innocence , saying one of his underlings had lied about him to keep from going to prison herself . Taubman was renowned for his attention to detail , knowledge of design and for developing some of the best-known malls in the United States . He first project was a freestanding bridal shop in Detroit . Over more than six decades , his company operated nearly 20 properties in the continental U.S. , including well-known developments such as the Beverly Center in Los Angeles , The Mall at Short Hills in New Jersey and The Shops at Crystals , in Las Vegas . His designs evolved over the years to include not only enclosed malls but various styles of open-air developments . And his influence stretched far from the American soil and into the thriving markets of China and South Korea . People we 've lost in 2015 . Taubman remained active until the end of his life . He devoted much of his energy in his later years to philanthropic activities . And , just over three weeks before his death , he attended the grand opening of The Mall of San Juan in Puerto Rico with his sons Robert and William . According to a statement by Robert Taubman , the patriarch had dinner in his home in Bloomfield Hills , Michigan , on Friday , then died of a heart attack . In addition to his sons , Robert and William , he is survived by a daughter , Gayle Taubman Kalisman , who is co-chair of the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute 's advisory board , two stepchildren , and his second wife , Judith Mazor Rounick , a former Miss Israel . CNN 's Cameron Tankersley contributed to this report .
Alfred Taubman , who died Friday , was active in philanthropy and worth $ 3.1 billion . Amid suburban boom of the '50s , he realized people would need places to shop : `` ... we could n't miss '' We was convicted in 2002 of trying to rig auction house commissions ; he maintained he was innocent .