Last year the economy continued to falter, causing 2009 to teeter on the brink of depression. The downward trend of the previous year spilled into the next and brought deep concern to economists and the people themselves. We were plagued with double-digit unemployment; the housing market barely had a heartbeat with two million homes foreclosed; banks and financial institutions had to be rescued by the government as did the automobile industry; small businesses floundered because funds were scarce and banks stopped lending; oil prices soared and consumers were forced to curtail their mobility and buy cautiously, seriously impacting retail sales.
The floor covering industry, like most businesses in the country, suffered from diminished sales and had to redouble its marketing efforts in an attempt to minimize losses. The specialty retailer also struggled with shrinking sales and had to pursue reluctant customers with more intense advertising and promotions. Most survived, some didn’t. The war in Iraq moved into another year and alongside that almost decade-long conflict the fighting in Afghanistan was intensified. The costs of the wars mounted as did the casualties and impatience of the American people.
Despite the gloom and doom of 2009, there was an occasional ray of sunshine that warmed us and restored our faith in each other. A courageous pilot in an emergency landed a plane with more than 200 passengers in the Hudson River—safely and without a single loss of life. A terrorist boarded a plane in Detroit with a bomb sewn into his underwear and was subdued by undaunted passengers before he could cause any harm.
Deeds like these restore our faith and preserve the American dream. Good Samaritans help us forget the misery, or at least make it bearable.
Each year at this time we remember friends and colleagues who passed away in the just completed year and savor the memories of how they touched our lives, how they made a difference. Today we pay our final tribute to relationships past and recollections relished. We celebrate their accomplishments and we are grateful for their contributions to our industry. We regret that we are unable to publish, nor do we know, every person in our industry who died last year; our efforts are limited to those of whom we are aware and those included in published obituaries which our research has revealed.
So, here is our year-end homage to our friends and associates, to the good times we shared and the not so good, to the unforgettable memories left behind and the enduring friendships that remain.
MANUFACTURERSSeymour Bernstein, 83, spent decades as
Bigelow’s contract salesman in New York. At the time his colleagues called him “Legend” because of the remarkable record he compiled.
Dana Gwynn Ferrell, 28, was a sales and marketing coordinator for Kährs International and her versatility and willingness to undertake the most difficult task marked her a prospect for executive duty.
Gene Kaiser, 82, developed thinset mortar, revolutionizing the ceramic tile industry. He started Kaiser Manufacturing in Houston, where he also developed dry set mortars and grouts. In the early ’60s, he formed C.E. Kaiser Co., where he sold products under the Crest and KB brand names. The company expanded to maintain offices in the United States, Canada and Mexico, eight manufacturing facilities and more than 150 employees. He continued to develop innovative allied products for the ceramic tile industry.
Rudolf Krepinsky, 85, in 1973 was the co-founder of Ceramica Antigua in Araras, Brazil, a manufacturer of hand-crafted, handpainted decorative tile. In 1982, he established Ceramic Tile Trends (CTT) in the United States, importing small-format tiles and decorative trim pieces from Brazil. Many of his artists who hand-paint the tiles live on the Ceramica Antigua campus. In 1957, he traveled from Canada to Brazil as a consultant with several factories, one a ceramic producer that started his career in the industry. In 1965, he became a director of Brilhoceramica in Sao Paulo and then went out on his own. In 2004, he passed his equity in the company to his daughter and remained active until a month before his death.
Pierre Lano, 65, was president for more than four decades of an eponymous carpet mill founded by his father in Belgium. He was also politically active in his community and was elected to public office several times. He was mayor of his city and also a member of its governing body. In business, he learned all aspects of the carpet industry, from manufacturing to sales, and became its chief executive officer and made the company one of the most successful in Europe. He was defined by his inexhaustible energy, his passion for people and his boundless generosity. He was always a socially engaged entrepreneur, in his community and in his industry. In 2009 he retired from daily management of the mill but remained active in determining the strategy of the company. Together with the management team, he responded to the global fiscal crisis through a strategic repositioning that started early in 2009. That carefully planned approach is now yielding results and the company has returned to a stable and profitable state.
Harold North, 82, was vice president of Card-Monroe and instrumental in the development of the international carpet market. He began his career in the industry in 1957 when he was hired by Lewis Card to sell tufting machines for Cobble Brothers. In 1982, he joined Card-Monroe as a sales executive and remained active on a global scale until his retirement in 2008, after more than half a century in the industry.
Jack Paton, 70, spent his entire business career of 47 years in the carpet industry, beginning in 1962 in the family distribution business—Masters & Merrill in Everett, Mass.—and becoming the youngest president of a major mill when he was 36. He was an astute businessman, an outstanding salesman and a dedicated friend to colleagues and competitors. In 1966, he joined E.T. Barwick Mills as Atlanta district manager and two years later became national sales manager. Then, in 1974, he was named president of the largest carpet mill in America—Barwick’s volume that year exceeded $200 million. In 1977, Barwick had some serious problems with the Securities & Exchange Commission and Paton left the company to form Eagle Carpet Mills and served as its president. He later joined Lotus Carpet and in the mid-’90s founded and was CEO of Paton Industries and was active at the time of his death.
Arthur Scher, 86, was an outstanding salesman, entrepreneur, author, train enthusiast and political pundit. He spent more than six decades in the floor covering industry; his first job was in 1940, working after school as an office boy for Jersey Carpet Corp., a local distributor. After two years he was promoted to the Sales Service Department and when he returned from military service three years later, he was named head of the section. He wanted to become a salesman and soon that dream was realized when he was named sales manager of Jersey’s Armstrong Resilient Division. In 1967, he joined Mand Carpet Mills as Eastern sales manager for the West Coast firm. After nine years with the company, he decided to accept the position of Eastern sales manager for the distributor division of WestPoint Pepperell. He kept that post for 13 years and left; following a two-year hiatus, he formed Scher Enterprises, a sales agency in Clifton, N.J. The business grew and prospered, but in 2004 he retired.
Al Simonson, 80, was with Dependable Bagging Co., a CCure affiliate and longtime NTCA member. He owned Southern Quickcrete and became a licensed blender, which became Dependable Bagging.
Charles Frederick Weisend, 83, started Fritz Chemical Co. in Mesquite, Tex., in 1956 and incorporated in 1959. Since 1993, the company has been known as Fritz Industries. In 1962, he introduced his first flooring product, Fritztile, an innovative terrazzo tile of epoxy resin binder and genuine marble aggregates. The product evolved into a modified polyester resin binder and became the first flexible terrazzo tile measuring only 1/8-inch in thickness. In 1993, he introduced the first commercial floor patch and self-leveling underlayment made of fly ash.
DISTRIBUTORSJohn Chandler, 85, launched his floor covering career in 1958 when he joined Vol T. Blacknall Co., a major distributor headquartered in Atlanta, as a sales representative covering middle and east Tennessee with the Barwick line, among others. Three years later he was promoted to sales manager and in 1969 was named vice president. After Blacknall’s death, Chandler managed the company and in 1976 he purchased the firm and became president. He remained at the helm until 1990 when he retired.
Douglas Engstler, 62, spent 35 years in the flooring industry, beginning as a salesman for Black & Ryan Distributing in 1971. When the company was acquired by Longust Distributing in 1975, he remained with the firm and moved to commercial sales, where he enjoyed great success. He recently left Longust and joined Big D’s Distributing. Engstler was also a Certified Tile Consultant.
Jacob “Jay” Hauser, 43, began in the industry in 1993 as a salesman for Jerry’s Floor Store and two years later joined Herregan Distributors in Eagan, Minn., as a sales representative, where he was employed when he died.
Mitchell Markoff, 91, was in the industry 50 years, starting in an entry-level position in 1946 and becoming president of a major distributor in 1962. It all began at White Shade & Linoleum in New York. In 1952, he joined Acme Floor Covering and three years later, made the switch from retail to wholesale when he became a salesman for Wornock Mills in New York. In 1960, he was recruited by Tri-State Floors, a distributorship owned by
Congoleum Corp., and two years later was named president. He was with the company 26 years, 24 as president, and during his tenure the company enjoyed unprecedented success. In 1986, Congoleum decided to close Tri-State and Markoff opted to retire. For the next decade, he worked with his son, Scott, who owns Fox Floors
Carpet One in Staten Island, N.Y. In 1996, he retired for good and relocated to Coral Springs, Fla.
RETAILERSEvans Baros Sr., 80, spent his entire career at Miami Rug Co, working with his father and then owning it with his brother, William. In 1947, he joined Miami Rug, a retail operation founded by his father, J.W. Baros Sr., in 1924, and with his brother saw the company grow into a 45-store chain in Florida and Georgia. He piloted his own plane and flew to each company store on a regular basis. In 1995, he concluded 71 years of success and phenomenal growth of Miami Rug and an illustrious career that spanned 48 years.
John Caldwell, 68, was in the flooring industry for more than four decades, having begun in the late ’60s when he owned Executive Carpet Mills. He later became sales manager for Barrett Carpet Mills. Eventually, he launched and headed the Rainbow Carpet Color Center, a buying group. He lived in Washington state but maintained an office in Dalton.
Philip Fructer, 85, worked for
Montauk Carpet & Rug in Farmingdale, N.Y., a company founded by his father in 1925 in Brooklyn, N.Y., that manufactured braided rugs. He worked in the factory after school and joined the company full time in 1945 after military service. By this time the business had moved to Manhattan and started to shift from manufacturing to retailing of wall- to-wall carpeting. Following the population migration to the suburbs, in 1973 Fructer opened a flagship store, warehouse and headquarters in Farmingdale that became Montauk’s most successful operation. He worked almost to the very end of his life.
Robert Hamwey, 62, founded Hamwey’s Oriental Rug & Carpeting in Belmont and Concord, Mass., more than 35 years ago. He was a member of the board of the Oriental Rug Association.
Mark John Joseph, 85, founded Mark and Jane’s Department Store in Indianapolis, in 1949. In 1962, he founded Joseph’s Oriental Rug Imports, also in Indianapolis, and achieved great success with the specialty retail operation.
Alexander Movsessian, 99, entered the rug business in 1931 as a salesman for Raymond’s Department Store in Boston and became a buyer and merchandise manager for Oriental rugs. When Raymond’s closed in 1973, he opened his own retail rug store, Al Movsessian & Sons, with his sons, Robert and Alan. The 18,000-square-foot showroom was located on the site of a former Raymond’s in Waltham, Mass. In 1998, he sold the business.
Donald Peake, 91, for decades was known as Peake the Shade Man because he carried window treatments as well as floor coverings in his retail operation in Portland, Ore. After returning from military service in 1946, he founded the floor covering specialty store and enjoyed decades of great success in his trading area and far beyond. He was very active in industry affairs and built a reputation as a leader. In 1964, he was elected president of the Western Floor Covering Association, which evolved into the
World Floor Covering Association.
Paul Wolfsohn, 93, spent his entire career in the floor covering industry—64 years—in just two jobs: as a sales executive for a distributor on the East Coast and an upscale retailer on the West Coast. In 1936, Wolfsohn joined the sales force of Jersey Carpet Corp., a major wholesaler that was owned by the Moscowitz brothers. He was eventually named sales manager and served the company for more than 30 years, when he decided to relocate to Las Vegas to found a retail operation— Imperial Carpet Co.—with a partner, Julie Lakin. After years of success, Lakin died and Wolfsohn became sole owner of the business. He was very active in industry matters and in 1985 was elected president of the Western Floor Covering Association, forerunner of the World Floor Covering Association. In 2000 at age 85, he retired and moved to California.
INSTALLERSErwin Berquist, 76, began as an installer at Paterson Floor
Coverings in Los Angeles in 1955, and it was there he met his future partner, Bill Paterson. In 1967 the two purchased the company from Paterson’s father, George, and together expanded the business to hit $10 million in annual volume. Paterson Floor Covering became the premier installation firm in the Los Angeles area. Berquist was a charter member of FCICA, the Flooring Contractors Association, and served as its chairman from 1983 to 1984. As an installer, he was a member of the International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades, Local 1247, and as an owner was a management contract negotiator. He also served on the Lees’ Carpet Technical Council.
Joetta BlueJacket, 62, was considered the patron saint of installers. They described her as “kind, compassionate, generous and always looked out for the best interest of installers everywhere.” She spent many years on a Navajo reservation and when her family moved to Oklahoma, she attended school and eventually moved to the Arlington/Grand Prairie, Tex., region where, in 1992, she purchased Installation Management Systems (IMS), an installation workshop. She became an associate member of the CFI, the installers organization, in 1994 and, two years later, was elected to its board, where she served three terms. She was CFI convention director for several years and hosted the group’s 13th annual event in Arlington.
FIBER COMPANIESJoseph “Cy” Gantt, 88, was with DuPont for 46 years and retired from its Textile Fibers Carpet Division in 1984. He continued for several years as a consultant. He played a key role in the introduction of
Stainmaster carpet to the cleaning industry and served as a valuable liaison between the carpet manufacturing and the cleaning industries until his retirement. During his retirement and up to his death, he was an honorary board member of the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC), missing one meeting in 18 years.
Bonnie Singer, 59, was a sales representative for DuPont and joined the company under strange circumstances. She was a young elementary school teacher when she heard about DuPont’s “mystery shoppers” program and was hired as one in 1987. The company moved her into different divisions and in 1993 she took over the Stainmaster account, selling the product in Arizona, San Diego, New Mexico and El Paso, Tex. She then went on to the specialty store division of DuPont Nylon Flooring. In 2002, she was honored as Person of the Year by the Arizona Floor Covering Association (AFCA), the first woman to win the prestigious award. She served as a member of the board of the AFCA. She eventually left the floor covering industry but remained an associate member of the AFCA.
ASSOCIATIONSWilliam Henry Oler, 86, began his career in the 1950s with the Hauck Manufacturing Co. and on into the ’90s and beyond he continued to move up the corporate ladder. When he left Hauck, he became vice president of sales for Okonite Co. in Passaic, N.J., and when the company was acquired by General Felt Industries, he remained as senior vice president. Then, General Felt was acquired by Knoll International and he retained the post of vice president. When he retired from Knoll, he accepted the position of president of the Carpet Cushion Council. In 2006, he retired for the second time.
