Dave Thomas (businessman) - Wikipedia

Thank you my friend Maj Marty Hogan for making us aware that July 2 is the anniversary of the birth of American business magnate and philanthropist Rex David "Dave" Thomas who was the founder and chief executive officer of Wendy's restaurant chain specializing in hamburgers.
An orphan himself Rex David "Dave" Thomas adopted Wendy whose face and red locks were artistically used to adorn the sign and the logo of Wendy's.
Wendy's Restaurant provides a 15% discount for military, veterans, police, fire and, emergency services personnel and family members.
Rest in eternal peace Rex David "Dave" Thomas:
Background from
"Dave Thomas, 69, Wendy's Founder, Dies
By DOUGLAS MARTINJAN. 9, 2002
Dave Thomas, an orphan who went to work in restaurants at 12 and by dint of hard work, quality control and shrewd marketing made Wendy's the third-largest hamburger chain in the world, died yesterday. He was 69 and was known to millions as the folksy character who made a low-key personal pitch for his own fast foods in more than 800 television commercials.
He died of liver cancer at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., according to the company he founded, Wendy's International. He had been undergoing kidney dialysis since early 2001 and had quadruple heart bypass surgery in December 1996.
Mr. Thomas was adopted as a baby, but he lost his adoptive mother when he was 5 and two stepmothers before he was 10. His closest relationship was with his grandmother, with whom he spent summers. He said she had taught him the values he strove to build into Wendy's, particularly her oft-repeated admonition, ''Don't cut corners.''
Hence, the square shape of Wendy's hamburgers.
Mr. Thomas became a leading champion for the adoption of foster children, arguing that they needed love in their lives. President George Bush named him as a national spokesman on adoption issues, and when President Clinton signed a bill in 1996 to give parents who adopt children a tax credit, he thanked Mr. Thomas for his leadership.
Mr. Thomas's greatest fame came from his Horatio Alger-style success story in building an empire of Wendy's restaurants, a dream that began with his frustration at being unable to find a good hamburger in downtown Columbus, Ohio. When he opened his first restaurant, on Nov. 15, 1969, his biggest ambition was that he might eventually expand so he could give each of his five children a place to work in the summer.
Within less than a decade, there were 1,000 Wendy's, and today there are more than 6,000. The company acquired Tim Hortons, a Canadian coffee and baked goods chain in 1995 and owns 2,000 of its stores.
''From humble beginnings,'' said Steven C. Anderson, president and chief executive of the National Restaurant Association, in a statement yesterday, ''he achieved an unprecedented level of success in a highly competitive segment of the restaurant business.''
Mr. Thomas began by naming his first restaurant, at Fifth and Broad Streets in Columbus, after a daughter who was nicknamed Wendy. He had her on hand -- with her freckles, blue-and-white striped dress and red-and-white striped socks -- to greet the first customers.
As the company grew to hold 13 percent of the burger restaurant market -- compared with 43 percent for McDonald's and 19 percent for Burger King, according to Technomic, a Chicago company that tracks the industry -- the down-home style was seldom forgotten.
The focus of Wendy's ads for the last decade has been Mr. Thomas. A company survey found that 90 percent of Americans knew Mr. Thomas as Wendy's founder and that 70 percent recognized him by his name.
He has appeared in loud floral shirts and wacky ties, but most often in a short-sleeved white shirt and a red tie. Sometimes he shared the camera with a cute dog or a celebrity, but the pitch was relentlessly straightforward: a friendly offer to sell a high-quality product at a fair price in a friendly environment.
Mr. Thomas is said to have appeared in more commercials than the combined appearances in ads of Lee Iacocca, of Chrysler; Orville Redenbacher, of the popcorn brand; and Colonel Sanders, of fried-chicken fame. The Guinness Book of World Records has recognized Mr. Thomas's spots as the ''Longest-Running Television Advertising Campaign Starring a Company Founder.''
Rex David Thomas was born on July 2, 1932, in Atlantic City to a mother he never knew. He was adopted by a couple from Kalamazoo, Mich., when he was 6 weeks old. His adoptive mother, Auleva Thomas, died of rheumatic fever when he was 5.
He traveled from city to city as his adoptive father, Rex, struggled to find work and remarried three times. When his father was single, the father and son often lived in dirty rooming houses and cramped trailers. He spent summers with Mrs. Thomas's mother, Minnie Sinclair.
''Hard work is good for the soul,'' Mr. Thomas remembered her saying. ''It keeps you from feeling sorry for yourself because you don't have time.''
His favorite thing to do with her was to eat lunch at the counter of a five-and-dime store. He also ate out with his father almost every evening. Since his father did not talk to him very much, he studied how things worked in restaurants. When he was 8, he decided that he would have a restaurant one day.
''Popeye wasn't my hero,'' he recalled. ''Wimpy was, because he loved hamburgers.''
At 10, after his father moved to Fort Wayne, Ind., and remarried, Mr. Thomas sought work. In the next two years, he had stints as a paperboy, a golf caddy, a grocery deliverer and a pinsetter. At 12, he found work at a Walgreen's soda fountain, but he was fired when the manager found out that he was not 16.
At 15, while living in Fort Wayne, he landed his first restaurant job. He was impressed that his boss wore a three-piece suit but mopped the floor and cleaned tables.
''If my boss can do everything, I can, too.'' the boy vowed.
When his family moved again, Mr. Thomas refused to go. He dropped out of 10th grade and went to work full time.
After serving in the Army as the manager of an enlisted-men's club, he returned to Fort Wayne, where his former boss owned some of the first franchises for a new product known as Kentucky Fried Chicken. But the restaurants were floundering, and Mr. Thomas was told that he could earn a 40 percent ownership share by turning them around.
His enthusiasm was so strong that for a while he adopted Colonel Sanders's signature white suit and black string tie. In 1968, Mr. Thomas sold the restaurants for $1.5 million. He briefly served as regional director for Kentucky Fried Chicken, then helped found the Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips chain.
In 1969, he started the hamburger restaurant of his dreams. He named it after the nickname of his 8-year-old daughter, Melinda Lou. Her siblings had difficulty with her name, calling her ''Wenda'' instead, so her nickname was Wendy. She survives him, as well as his wife of 47 years, Lorraine; a son, Ken; three other daughters, Pam, Molly and Lori; and 16 grandchildren. All his children prefer to be known by informal first names, and all live in Columbus.
The idea of Mr. Thomas's first Wendy's restaurant was to make each sandwich fresh and give customers a choice of toppings. The décor matched the old-fashioned theme of the restaurant: Tiffany-style glass lamps, hanging beads and bentwood chairs. The target audience was adults, as indicated by the salad bars, considered a radical thing in a fast-food restaurant.
In 1982, he gave up command of day-to-day operations. He explained that his mentor, Colonel Sanders, had made the mistake of staying on too long. But the company began to make some mistakes, including a failed breakfast menu.
In 1986, Mr. Thomas hired a president, James Near, who urged him to be more active. Inside the company, he visited franchises to preach a ''mop-bucket attitude.'' Outside, he starred in commercials.
As the commercials became frequent, the company steadily gained market share.
Even as he became ubiquitous in commercials, Mr. Thomas devoted more time to pushing his campaign to find homes and loving families for children who need them -- particularly for those who are older, disabled or otherwise less attractive to potential adoptive parents.
His Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption has promoted the creation of innovative employment benefit programs for people who adopt, among a number of initiatives. Posters and tray liners in Wendy's restaurants each November promote the cause of adoption.
Mr. Thomas readily acknowledged that he was not the perfect father, in large measure because he had no good role model.
In an article in People magazine in 1993, his son, Ken, said: ''He doesn't seem to know how to be with us. For him, home is a nice place to visit, but he doesn't want to live there.''
Mr. Thomas made no apologies. ''How can I explain?'' he asked. ''I like to be around them, but I couldn't do it too much because it would bother me. We'd bug each other.''
Mr. Thomas said his greatest regret was not finishing high school. In 1993, he hired a tutor and passed the G.E.D. exam. Coconut Creek High School in Fort Lauderdale made him part of its senior class. He was awarded his high school diploma, and he and his wife were king and queen of the senior prom.
He was voted ''Most Likely to Succeed.''

"Colonel Sanders saved me" -- Wendy's founder Dave Thomas on KFC icon
Dave Thomas was the founder of Wendy's. He began his career at age 25 after an unlikely meeting with Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Thomas was interviewed by Joel Engardio in June 1997 for the POV magazine column "When I Was 25" where successful people talk about their formative days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7u8HjdvUpk


FYI LTC Wayne Brandon LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj Robert Thornton CPT Scott Sharon SSG William Jones SSG Donald H "Don" Bates PO3 William Hetrick PO3 Lynn Spalding SPC Mark Huddleston SGT Rick Colburn CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SSgt Brian Brakke SP5 Jeannie Carle SCPO Morris Ramsey Sgt Albert Castro SMSgt Lawrence McCarter

Dave Thomas was an orphan who never forgot what it was like. He gave millions of dollars to programs for adoption and to improve foster care.

Thanks for sharing Dave Thomas' story, I still like Wendy's burgers.