January 09,2002
Jîarthxnh (©bôeruer
Page B5
Wendy’s Founder Dave Thomas Dies
He was an adopted child who once mentored with Col. Sanders of KFC fame
(AP) - Dave Thomas, the
portly pitchman whose home-
spun ads built W endy’s Old-
Fashioned Hamburgers into
one of the world’s most suc
cessful fast-food enterprises,
died Tuesday o f liver cancer.
He was 69.
“He was the heart and soul
of our company. He had a
passion for great tasting ham
burgers, and devoted his life to
serving customers great food
and helping those less fortu
nate in his community,” said
Jack Schuessler, chairman and
chief executive of W endy’s.
The founder and senior
chairman of W endy’s Interna
tional became a household
name when he began pitching
his burgers and fries in televi
sion commercials in 1989. The
smiling Thomas, always wear
ing a white short-sleeved shirt
and red tie, touted the virtues
HL
of fast-food in more than 800
humorous ads, sometimes fea
turing stars such as bluesman
B.B. King and soap opera
queen Susan Lucci.
B ut burgers weren ’ t his first
lo v e. T h o m as, w ho was
adopted as an infant, became a
national advocate for adoption.
He created the Dave Tho
mas Foundation for Adoption,
a not-for-profit organization
focused on raising public
Dave Thomas,
the founder o f
Wendy's Old
Fashioned
Hamburgers,
also served food
as the
restaurant
chain's
advertising
spokesman.
awareness of adoption. The
profits from his books, “Dave’s
W ay” and “Well Done!” go to
the foundation.
In 1956, he was working at
a barbecue restaurant in Fort
W ayne, In d ., w hen C ol.
Harland Sanders of KFC fame
stopped in on a promotional
tour. Thom as’s boss bought a
KFC franchise, and six years
later, Thomas came to Colum
bus, Ohio to take over four
Congressman Stripped to
Underwear in Airport Search
(A P) — Security
guards at Washington’s
Reagan National Airport
forced U.S. Rep. John
Dingell to strip to his un
derwear before boarding
a flight to Detroit.
The guards at the
Northwest Airlines termi
nal did not believe the 75-
year-old congressman’s
explanation about his
metal hip, which he re
ceived after a horse fell on him 20 years ago.
“They felt me up and down like a prize
steer,” Dingell, D-Mich., said. “I was very
nice, but I probably showed I was dis
pleased.”
The private security guards made him
take off his overcoat, then his suit coat, then
his shoes and socks on Saturday. When he
still triggered metal detector alarms, the
guards took him to a back room and asked
Rep.John
Dingell, D-
Mich. in a
Dec. 15 file
photo. (AP
Photo)
him to remove his trousers.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman
Mineta heard about the incident and said he
would look into it, Dingell said.
“I asked Norman to check to see if they
treated me like they do everybody else,”
Dingell said. “I just wanted to be sure that
what they did was necessary, that I got the
same treatment, no better or no worse, than
anyone else.”
Classifieds/Bids
failing Kentucky Fried Chicken
restaurants.
He sold them back to the
founder in 1968 for $1.5 mil
lion, making him a millionaire
at 35.
He o p e n e d h is f ir s t
W e n d y ’s O ld F a sh io n e d
Ham burgers in Colum bus a
year later. He named the res
taurant after his 8-year-old
d a u g h te r M e lin d a L o u ,
nicknam ed W endy by her
siblings.
D espite his su ccess, it
w asn’t until 1993 that T ho
mas earned a high school
equivalency certificate.
That year, he told 2,500 Co
lumbus public school seniors
his biggest mistake was not
finishing high school.
“We have 4,000 restaurants
today, but if I had gotten my
high school diploma, we might
have 8,000,” he said.
Highway
To Improve
(AP) — State transportation offi
cials said they are accelerating a
project of neighborhood enhance
m ents along U.S. H ighw ay 30
through Portland’s Linnton neigh
borhood. The goal is to reduce ve
hicle speeds.
The Linnton neighborhood is where
14-year-old Ryan Calvert was struck
and killed by a van in November.
Calvert had just gotten off a bus and
was crossing the highway on his way
hom e
from
school.
The road improvements were sched
uled to go to bid in September. ODOT
planners now hope to open the project
forbidding in April.
The design elements include raised
medians with and without trees, and
the use of colored concrete to serve
as visual cues for motorists.
The Korean American
Association of Oregon
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