Passings 2006 Article Number : 1754

Article Detail

Date	2/15/2007 9:52:58 AM
Written By	LGM & Associates Technical Flooring Services
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Abstract	This past year closed to mixed reviews. The economy fluctuated between strong and moderate, often shaped by selling seasons and geographic idiosyncrasies. The stock market hit record highs and though the housing market slowed, the floor covering industry posted modest gains...
Article	This past year closed to mixed reviews. The economy fluctuated between strong and moderate, often shaped by selling seasons and geographic idiosyncrasies. The stock market hit record highs and though the housing market slowed, the floor covering industry posted modest gains. We were virtually disaster-free during the hurricane season and the country’s main concern focused on the war in Iraq. As the year closed the country mourned the loss of its 38th President, Gerald R. Ford. Americans went to the polls in November for the mid-term election and returned the Senate and House of Representatives to the Democrats. Energy costs dropped in the period leading to the election and climbed steadily soon after. Home heating fuel costs surpassed those at the pump and debilitated most consumer budgets, causing the postponement of some home improvement and refurbishing plans. Retailers were caught between the ebb and flow of consumer spending and many saw their profits fluctuate accordingly. But, 2006 is history and locked in that year are the thoughts and memories of those friends and associates who have passed on. Each year we remember our departed colleagues and pay a final tribute to their accomplishments and contributions to our industry and to us personally. It is unfortunate that we cannot mention, nor do we know, every person in our industry who died last year, only those of whom we are aware and those who were acknowledged in published obituaries. So, presented here is our final homage to them, recognition and a fond farewell. MANUFACTURERS Robert Adamo, 78, began his career in the industry in 1952 and was a salesman for Con-goleum and later with Trend Mills, where he rose to general manager of its Jean-Alan division. After 15 years at Trend, he joined General Foam, where he spent the next 15 years. He retired in 1996. Paul Arleo, 79, started as advertising manager for A&M Karagheusian in 1955 and when J.P. Stevens purchased the company and named the new division Gulistan Carpet, the mill’s primary brand, he continued in his position. In 1966, he and a partner founded Viking Comm-unications, a public relations firm, and he remained close to the carpet industry. In 1972, he returned to his forte and with two associates opened an advertising agency. Five years later, he found his niche and formed Arleo Marketing Corp., which was retained by the New York Market Committee to create a press room and hospitality suite in 919 Third Ave., The Carpet Center Building, for the 1977 winter and summer markets. In 1979, he successfully promoted and publicized the New York distributors’ market on the pier in Manhattan. He retired in 1994. Robert Louis Bird, 85, spent 37 years in the rug and carpet industry, the first 12 with Aldon Rug Mills, Wunda Weve and Wool-O, and the last 25 with Capel. As southeast regional accounts manager, he maintained an office in the Atlanta Merchandise Mart, though he spent most of his time traveling. Peter Chipouras, 51, was well-known in the stone industry, where he spent almost his entire career. He started with McCormick Quarries, owned by his grandfather. His career took him to Saudi Arabia, where he became general manager of National Quarries and opened several granite quarries. He returned to the U.S. to work with Stona, a family business. He also was the founder of Fairfield Marble, a residential marble and granite fabricator. Andres Faus founded the Faus Group in 1953, a leading laminate manufacturer. As chairman, he spearheaded the direction and growth of the company for 52 years. He came from a family of carpenters and was regarded a pioneer in the industry and in many areas of manufacturing, gaining international recognition for his contributions to the woodworking and laminate flooring industries. David Field, 67, began in 1961 in the buying department of Allied Stores assigned to floor coverings and in 1966, he became the rug buyer for E.J. Korvette. He then segued into manufacturing as director of marketing for the Painter Carpet division of Collins & Aikman in 1971. Peter Spirer had sold Painter to C&A and the two had met and decided to form a partnership in Tile Corporation of America (TCA), which morphed into Horizon Industries with Field as president. The following year, he and David Polley formed David Industries, a partnership, with Field as president. In 1979, the company ceased doing business and he was inactive until 1992, when he joined Globaltex as vice president of sales. He retired in 2003. Carl Hagaman, 91, entered the carpet industry when it was in its infancy. His first venture was Heritage Carpet Mills, which was eventually acquired in the mid-1960s by Bud Seretean of Coronet Industries. Shortly thereafter, he founded Danube Carpets and sold it in 1982, after which he retired. Danube is now a division of Shaw Industries. He was a founding investor in Color Strand, an early space dyeing facility in Dalton, as well as Color Masters, a then state-of-the-art Artos dyeing technology. A pioneer, his companies were responsible for developing and refining the earliest 5/64-inch gauge tufting machines and initial cut-and-loop technology. Irv Harvey, 75, started in 1954 as a sales trainee for Pinsky Floor Covering, a Chicago-based distributor. In 1958, he formed his own sales agency with Phil Hymans and the company, Hymans & Harvey, thrived for five years. In 1963, he joined Evans & Black Carpet Mills and became its first regional sales manager. He was later promoted to vice president and, in 1967, moved his family to Dallas to become director of marketing for the company. Then, in April of 1968, at age 37, he formed Galaxy Carpet Mills with Charles Bramlett, Bobby Mos-teller and Irv Pomerantz. In 1972, Galaxy became a public company, trading on the Ameri-can Stock Exchange, with Har-vey as chairman, president and CEO. He was an innovator and a visionary; in the early 1980s, he was one of the first to engage a famous designer when he commissioned Oleg Cassini to create a unique carpet line for Galaxy. He was chairman of the Carpet & Rug Institute and served on its board of directors for 17 years and on its Executive Committee from 1973 to 1982. He also was a charter member of the Floor Covering Industry Foundation and served on its board and Executive Committee. In 1989, Peerless Carpet Corp. of Montreal, Canada, purchased Galaxy, which had sales of $270.5 million in 1988. Harvey retired in 1989. Alan Lorberbaum, 82, in 1957 he and his wife, Shirley, founded Aladdin Mills in what had been a roller skating rink, initially producing rugs and bath mats. The business flourished and expanded year after year and in the late 1970s began producing carpet. In the 1980s, Aladdin aggressively pursued the broadloom business, competing successfully against well-established mills. He created unique and efficient manufacturing processes that distinguished Aladdin as a low-cost producer and formidable competitor. His was one of the first mills to invest in its own fiber extrusion, which gave an additional advantage. He was quick to embrace new technology and he developed a distribution and trucking system that in-creased the level of service beyond industry standards. In 1994, Aladdin merged with Mohawk Industries, which created the second largest carpet company in the world and later the largest flooring manufacturer in the world. He became a member of Mohawk’s board of directors as well as the company’s major shareholder. He retired in 1999. Arthur Nestler, 84, joined his father’s floor covering business in 1945, George Nestler & Son, a retail operation in Brook-lyn founded by his grandfather. That began a career that span-ned more than 60 years. In 1950, he and his father started Livingston Sales, the first distributor in the country of Kentile products. In 1954, he and a partner formed Coast To Coast Sales, a manufacturers’ representative agency, which later produced its own products under the name Champion Carpets. In 1966, he sold Livingston Sales to Robbins. He also owned leased carpet departments in several stores. Then he sold Coast to Coast and Champion to Stephen-Leedom Carper Co. and became president of the mill. In 1975, he and his son, Mark, formed Nestler Enterprises and he remained active in the company until the day he died. Harry Pearson, 78, spent almost all of his career with Congoleum Corp., rising from assistant district manager to president. He began in 1952 as an Armstrong Cork Co. trainee and the following year became a salesman for Crockett & Buss, an Armstrong distributor headquartered in New York City. In 1955, he joined Congoleum and became its president in 1969. Bath Industries, a prominent ship building firm, acquired Congoleum in 1972, and he was given the added title of executive vice president of the parent company. Eventually Bath divested itself of Congoleum and he remained president until his retirement in 1986. E. Stanley Robbins, 98, was an inventor, designer and entrepreneur. In 1930, he started Robbins Tire & Rubber in Tuscumbia, Ala., and at one time employed 1,200 people. The plant was destroyed by fire in 1939, but he rebuilt it into one of the most modern of its kind in the world. Still a family business, it is now owned by his son, Eddie. In 1957, Robbins converted some cattle barns in Shoals Creek, Ala., into a vinyl flooring plant to start National Floor Products Co. (NAFCO) with 35 employees. He later purchased the first site in the Florence/Lauderdale Industrial Park and built a state-of-the-art vinyl plant and designed the equipment that developed the first solid vinyl flooring and was the first manufacturer to produce it. He held patents on numerous manufacturing pro-cesses that paved the way for the quality of construction of today’s products. In addition to his technical innovations, he was known as a genius in style and design and NAFCO reflected that as a producer of luxury vinyl tile. In 1994, NAFCO was sold to Domco Industries, which eventually merged with Tarkett, and now is part of its Commercial division. But, Robbins kept going and in 1989, at the age of 82, he founded Robbins Industries in the same industrial park. Today, the company is run by one of his his sons, Rodney. George J. Sampson, 84, spent his entire career of 42 years in the floor covering industry. He began in 1948 as a salesman for Coleman-Levin and then entered the resilient business with a succession of companies that covered four decades. He never left a company but acquisitions changed his business card. He started with Sandura and then Ruberoid, which was acquired by GAF, which in turn was bought by Tarkett. He retired in 1990. Patti Stasiak, 59, was president and partner of All American Wood Register Co., Wonder Lake, Ill., a family business she joined in the mid-80s. She served on the Membership Committee of the National Wood Flooring Association from 1997 to 2004 and secretary/treasurer of the local chapter of the Fraternal Order of the Forest Products Industry. Bernard Wittlinger, 73, spent 40 years in the floor covering industry, having started in 1958 as a salesman for Forest Mills. In 1965, he joined Aldon Rug Mills and five years later was named vice president of midwest sales for James Carpet. In 1972, he became vice president of national accounts for Normandy Carpets and in 1978 he joined Kimberly Carpets, division of Diamond Rug & Carpet Mills as national sales manager. In 1981, he was named national sales manager for Galaxy Carpet’s Nautilus division, a position he held for 11 years before he moved to the parent company as national accounts manager. When Mohawk acquired Galaxy, he became vice president of national accounts for the division. He retired in 1998. DISTRIBUTORS Malcolm S. Elfman, 81, had a 58-year career—48 as a distributor and 10 as a retailer. He joined Ben Elfman & Son, his father’s business founded in 1907, and eventually became president. The New England distributorship, after decades of success and growth, suffered several reversals and ceased operations. At age 71, he opened a retail business, Mal Elfman of Waltham, which became a dominant store in the area. He worked long hours managing the operation and its staff until he was eventually sidelined by failing health. Albert Hassan, 59, started in the floor covering department of Macy’s in New York City in 1969. In the ensuing years, he held sales positions with William A. Sales Corp. and Ernest Rothschild Distributing, and in 1974, he joined David Chassler, a division of Ameri-can Biltrite. After a stint as sales manager with All Island Distributing in 1980, he joined Benj. Berman as a vice president. Between 1986 and 1991, he was a regional sales manager for World Carpets and sales manager for Apollo Distribu-ting and Western Car-pet & Linoleum. In 1991, he formed his own sales agency and operated it successfully until his death. Donn Robert Holmer, 59, spent his entire 40-year career, first as a manufacturer and then as a distributor in San Diego. He began working for his father’s company, R.N. Holmer, a carpet manufacturer, which later became Holmer Carpets. When the company stopped making carpet in the early 1970s, he went into the distribution business as Holmer Carpet Sales. David Izen, 82, acquired Quality Rubber Products in 1965, reorganized it and added carpet to the product mix, which had consisted of stair treads, tile and other rubber items. The company grew steadily in size and volume and, to keep pace, he built a large warehouse and office complex in the Avon Industrial Park in Massachussetts. To reflect the company’s new image, he changed its name to Quality Carpets. The business was flourishing and in 1986, 21 years after he acquired the company, he decided to sell it to Richard and Robert Stone, after which he retired. John Link, 83, was in the industry for more than a half century, having started in 1950 as a salesman for the Fred T. Lowy Co., a Midwest distributor. In 1957, he co-founded McKee Enterprises and left a few years later to form his own sales agency. In 1971, he joined Herregan Distributors as carpet sales manager and eventually became the company’s contract manager. He worked until the time of his death. Armand Morano, 84, was a partner with Ira Arnowich and Jerry Frost in Arlington Carpet, a Monarch Carpet distributor, in Westbury, L.I., in 1963. In 1975, he left the company and later joined Columbus Mills and retired in 1991. He was in the group that founded the Long Island Floor Covering Club in 1958, served as its president, and in 1994, was the first to be elected to its Hall of Fame. Homer Wheeler, 84, began his career in the early 1950s as a salesman with O.F. Ruprecht Co., a New Jersey-based distributor. In 1957, he relocated to Orlando, Fla., and joined the F.T. Kelly Co., where he spent 18 years and, in 1975, he formed Wheeler, Inc., a flooring distributorship headquartered in Orlando. RETAILERS Donald Bloeser, 92, owned the oldest flooring dealership in California, John Bloeser Carpet One. It was founded by his grandfather in 1879 and when his father died in 1940, he took over operation of the company in partnership with his mother, Mary. After his mother died, he ran the business for 50 years with the help of his sons, John and Jerry, and expanded into Long Beach, Costa Mesa, Downey and Fullerton. Hubert Coles, 89, grew up in Phoenix, Ariz., where his father operated Dorris-Heyman Furniture Co. He worked for his father until he enlisted in the Navy near the end of World War II. After his discharge, he moved to California and be-came very active in molding San Diego’s destiny, which included creating a home furnishings district. His first store, Coles of La Jolla, offered furniture, appliances, draperies, rugs, floor covering and gift items. In 1970, he founded Coles Carpets and Fine Flooring in San Diego and in the ensuing 30 years the company expanded into San Marcos, El Cajon and Solana Beach with branch operations. In 1963, he closed the original store but remained active into his 80s. Irving Nussbaum, 78, was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. , migrated to Scottsdale, Ariz., in 1961 and ran a thriving retail business for 45 years. He and his wife, Iris, founded the Carpet Mart and built it into a major retail operation in Scottsdale. He retired in 1990. Albert Blank, 84, started his own company, Made Well Shade & Linoleum, in East Los Angeles, Calif., in 1945. He formed a second company in 1962, Town & Country Floor Coverings, which put him in the contract business. He opened a showroom in Santa Ana, Calif., in 1970 to work with contractors and designers. Then, in 1985, he closed his first retail store and concentrated his efforts on his contract clients. In 2000, he retired and moved to Las Vegas. Herb Wolk, 74, joined David’s Carpet, a Brooklyn retailer, in 1953, and that launched a career that spanned 53 years. In his 20 years with David’s, he became vice president and eventually gained an equity position. In 1973, he was named vice president of Allen Carpet, a multi-store specialty chain in the New York area. After two years, he founded his own business, Cadillac Carpet, a retail store in Westbury, L.I. Cadillac grew and expanded to become one of the most recognized and respected on Long Island. He devoted a significant portion of his time to educating members of the industry. He trained many of the people he hired over the years and in the early 1980s, the Retail Floor-covering Institute (RFI) organized a four-day school to teach sales people to become sales professionals. He traveled from city to city, staying a week at a time. He developed the curriculum, shaped the program and taught 80% of the classes. He served virtually in every office and on every committee of the RFI and the American Floorcovering Association (AFA), its successor. He played a prominent role in the negotiations to merge the AFA and the World Floor Covering Association and he continued to serve the WFCA long after his retirement in 1993. INSTALLERS Edward Janeczek, 64, was a dedicated installer and trainer for 45 years. He began his career at the age of 19 as a union installer and later opened a retail store, Crete Carpet & Tile in Crete, Ill. He operated the store for 20 years and then joined Congoleum as its field installation specialist, a position he held for the past 25 years. During that time he conducted approximately 3,000 training seminars in the U.S. and Ca-nada. It is estimated more than 50,000 trade professionals attended his sessions. Gene Shelton, 40, was a CFI Certified Commercial Installer from Iowa, who was killed in a motorcycle accident. Jim Wilson, Sr., of Talahas-see, Fla., was a CFI Certified Installer, Residential I and II, and Contract I and II. IMPORTERS Mishel Hakimi, 42, was born in Iran and moved to Italy, where he started his own antique rug business and which he continued when he came to the U.S. Seven years ago, he joined his father-in-law’s company, Jerry H. Aziz Oriental Rugs, and es-tablished an outstanding record of achievement. He was active in ORIA, where he served on the magazine committee. Massood Haroonian, 74, in the business for more than five decades, he founded Haroonian Rug Co. in Los Angeles. He followed his father, a well-known figure in the rug industry in Iran, into the trade and built a worldwide reputation as an expert. That led to his promotion to president of the Iranian Carpet Export Council and official expert to the Judiciary office of the government of the Shah. He moved to the U.S. in 1977, started his business and had clients in Japan, Europe and North America. Rom Moheban, 47, after graduating from college, joined his father in 1981, who changed the name of his company to Abraham Moheban & Son. He worked with dealers, designers and architects and was one of the first to create a programmed carpet line from Turkey. He opened a company showroom in midtown Manhattan to be closer to his clients. He was active with ORIA and served on its executive board. Ralph Shulman, 89, joined Trans Ocean Import Co. in 1934, left to serve in the Air Force in World War II, and rejoined the rug company in 1945. He became a principal in the firm in 1967. He retired in 1985, having spent his entire career of 51 years with the same company. FIBER COMPANIES Chico Batavia, 62, was born in India and came to the U.S. in 1970. The following year he received a Master’s Degree in polymer science and textile engineering from Clemson Univer-sity and immediately joined Milliken Carpets in research and development. In 1973, he moved to Rohm & Haas and five years later he joined AlliedSignal. In 1983, he went to work for Floor World, a Dallas retailer, and when it closed in 1985, he joined LDBrinkman as senior vice president of carpet products. But, in 1988 he returned to AlliedSignal and three years later he was promoted to manager of national accounts, a position he held until he opted for early retirement in 1999. He then established CB Consulting and became a successful and highly respected advisor to the industry. JOURNALISTS Howard Olansky, 78, spent 51 years writing about the floor covering industry, defining its people and its companies, its growth and successes, its triumphs and its tragedies. He was the editor and publisher of Western Floors and with his partner, Harold Arkoff, founded Eastern Floors, Floor Covering Installer and ICS Cleaning Specialist. He gave himself to everyone, as a consultant, an advisor, a mentor, a friend. He was a member of the World Floor Covering Association Industry Hall of Fame and the personification of its ideals. In 1997, he and Arkoff sold their publishing company to BNP Media and he continued to write to stay close to the industry he loved. He continued to the very end. CARPET CLEANERS Edgar P. York, 79, was characterized as “having no peers in the carpet cleaning industry. In 1992, Cleanfax readers voted him the “Grandad of Carpet Cleaners,” and in 2000, Clean-fax recognized him as its Person of the 20th Century. He en-tered the industry in 1969 and was the driving force in making steam cleaning, hot water ex-traction, the industry standard. He also was instrumental in making popular low moisture cleaning, encapsulation, using the Cimex machine. He and his wife, Wanda, founded Steam Service, the distribution model for the industry. He established the International Institute of Carpet & Upholstery Certifi-cation (IICUC), now the Insti-tute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC), the most im-portant development in the cleaning and restoration industry in the past 30 years. ASSOCIATIONS Robert T. Young, 87, had a varied career in the ceramic tile industry. He was a tile setter’s helper, an apprentice, master mechanic, tile contractor and ceramic tile consultant. He started attending the Southern Tile Contractors Association in the late 1960s and became actively involved in 1972. He moved up steadily and became chairman of the board, after which he was named special consultant to the board, a position he held for many years. He influenced the association’s growth and its path to national recognition, as well as its name change to the National Tile Contractors Association. He served on its Technical Committee from 1985 until his death.