Rex David " Dave " Thomas (July 2, 1932 - January 8, 2002) is an American business and philanthropic king. Thomas is the founder and chief executive of Wendy, a chain of fast food restaurants specializing in hamburgers. He is also known for appearing in over 800 commercials for the chain from 1989 to 2002, more than any other company founder in television history.
Video Dave Thomas (businessman)
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Thomas was born on July 2, 1932 in Atlantic City, New Jersey to an unmarried young woman he never knew. He was adopted on six weeks by Rex and Auleva Thomas, and as an adult became a well-known advocate for adoption, founded the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. After the death of her adoptive mother when she was 5 years old, her father moved across the country looking for work. Thomas spent part of his childhood near Kalamazoo, Michigan with his grandmother Minnie Sinclair, whom he trusted by teaching him the importance of serving and treating others well and with respect, the lessons that helped him in his future business life.
At 12, Thomas got his first job at Regas Restaurant, a fancy restaurant in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, then lost in a dispute with his boss; Decades later, Regas Restaurant posted an autographed photo poster of Thomas in front of the entrance until the business closed on December 31, 2010. He vowed never to lose another job. Moving with his father, at the age of 15 he worked in Fort Wayne, Indiana at the Clauss family owned Hobby House Restaurant. As his father prepares to move again, Dave decides to stay in Fort Wayne, out of high school to work full time at the restaurant. Thomas, who considered ending his school as the biggest mistake of his life, did not graduate from high school until 1993, when he obtained a GED.
He then became an education advisor and founded Dave Thomas's Education Center at Coconut Creek, Florida, which offers GED classes for young adults.
Maps Dave Thomas (businessman)
US. Army
At the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, rather than waiting for the draft, he volunteered for the US Army to have several options in the assignment. Having production experience and food service, Thomas asked Cook's and Baker School in Fort Benning, Georgia. He was sent to Germany as a sergeant and was responsible for the daily food of 2,000 soldiers, ascending to the rank of staff sergeant. After his discharge in 1953, Thomas returned to Fort Wayne and Hobby House.
Fast food career
Kentucky Fried Chicken
In the mid-1950s, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Colonel Harland Sanders, came to Fort Wayne to find a restaurant with a well-established business to try to sell KFC franchises to them. At first, Thomas, who was the head of a cook at a restaurant, and Clausses turned down Sanders' offer, but Sanders persisted and the Clauss franchise their restaurant with KFC and then also owns many other KFC franchises in the Midwest. During this time, Thomas worked with Sanders in many projects to make KFC more profitable and give him brand recognition. Among the other things Thomas suggested to Sanders, which was implemented, was that KFC reduced the number of items on the menu and focused on the signature dish. Thomas also advised Sanders to make the ads he displayed in him. Thomas was sent by the Clauss family in the mid-1960s to help transform four of their KFC stores in Columbus, Ohio.
In 1968 Thomas had increased sales in four fried chicken restaurants so he sold his share to Sanders for more than $ 1.5 million. This experience will prove invaluable to Thomas when he started Wendy about a year later.
Arthur Treacher's
After serving as regional director for Kentucky Fried Chicken, Thomas became part of a group of investors who founded Arthur Treacher. His involvement with the new restaurant lasted less than a year before he found Wendy.
Wendy's
Thomas opened his first Wendy in Columbus, Ohio, November 15, 1969. (The original restaurant remained in service until March 2, 2007, when closed for sale.) Thomas named the restaurant after his eight-year-old daughter Melinda Lou, whose nickname was " Wendy ", derived from the inability of the child to say his own name at a young age. According to Bio TV, Dave claimed that people called his daughter "Wenda, not Wendy, but Wenda," I'll call her Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers. "
In 1982, Thomas withdrew from his day-to-day operations at Wendy. However, in 1985, some of the company's business decisions, including the awkward new breakfast menu and the loss of brand awareness due to failed marketing efforts, caused the company's new president to push Thomas back into a more active role with Wendy. Thomas began visiting franchises and supported his hard work, the so-called "bucket-stance". In 1989, he took an important role as a TV spokesperson in a series of ads for the brand. Thomas is not a natural actor, and at first his appearance was criticized as rigid and ineffective by advertising critics.
In 1990, after an effort by Wendy's agency, Backer Spielvolgel Bates, to include humor into the campaign, a decision was made to portray Thomas in a more self-deprecating and humble manner, which proved much more popular among test audiences. Consumer brand awareness of Wendy has finally regained a level that has not been achieved since Clara Banner is too popular, "Where's the beef?" campaign in 1984.
With his innocent, casual style, Thomas quickly became a household name. A company survey during the 1990s, a decade in which Thomas starred in every Wendy advertisement that aired, found that 90% of Americans know who Thomas is. After more than 800 ads, it is clear that Thomas plays a leading role in Wendy's status as the third most popular burger restaurant in the country.
In 1994, Thomas made a cameo appearance as himself at Bionic Ever After? , a TV reunion film based on The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman .
Personal life
Dave Thomas married for 47 years to Lorraine. She is the mother of their five children. In addition to Melinda, they have three more daughters, Pam, Lori, and Molly, and a son, Kenny. Although Kenny died in 2013, Dave's daughter still continues to own and run multiple Wendy locations. Thomas established the chain of Sisters Chicken and Biscuits in 1978, which was named in reference to 3 other daughters.
Awards and membership
Thomas, realizing that his success as a high school dropout might convince another teen to quit school (something he later claimed to be a mistake), became a pupil at Coconut Creek High School. He won the GED in 1993. Thomas was inducted into the U.S. Hall of Fame Business Achievement Junior in 1999.
Thomas is a respected Kentucky colonel, like former Colonel Sanders boss.
Thomas was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003.
Thomas grew up a Master Mason in Sol. D. Bayless Lodge No. 359 Fort Wayne, Indiana, and became 32Ã, Â ° Mason, N.M.J., on November 16, 1961, at the Fort Wayne Scottish Rite. He was affiliated with Miami, Florida, Scottish Rite Bodies on December 18, 1991; invested with the rank and decor of the Knight Commander Court of Honor on November 13, 1993, in Jacksonville, Florida; and dubbed the Inspector General of Honor, SJ, on November 25, 1995, in Atlanta, Georgia, and unanimously elected to the highest honor of the Scottish Rite, Grand Cross, by the Supreme Council, 33 Â °, in the Executive Session on October 3, 1997, at Washington, DC
Death
Thomas had fought against a carcinoid neuroendocrine tumor for ten years, before he metastasized to his liver. He died on January 8, 2002 at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida at the age of 69 years. Thomas is buried at Union Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio. At the time of his death, there were over 6,000 Wendy restaurants operating in North America.
References
External links
- Wendy's award for Dave Thomas
- The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption
- "Dave Thomas Biography". Retrieved June 1, 2005
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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