Century People

Home Channel News, Oct 25, 1999

100 luminaries who left (or are still making) their mark on the home improvement industry

FRED ANDERSEN

Built Andersen Windows into one of the few recognizable brands among building products.

STEPHEN BEBIS

Former Home Depot exec who developed Aikenheads in Canada as a warehouse format.

ARTHUR BLANK

Cofounded Home Depot, a retailer that altered the course of home improvement retail history.

JOHN BREEDLOVE

The late gregarious merchant who worked for Payless Cashways and Home Depot.

JOHN BREEN

Sherwin-Williams' chairman who presides over one of the best examples of a company that combines manufacturing with retailing.

CARL BUCHAN

Lowe's, took over two-story hardware store after World War II with dreams of turning it into a nationwide chain.

OWEN CHEATHAM

Georgia-Pacific founder who built one of the leaders in building products distribution.

HAROLD and MEL COHEN

Brothers who created Somerville Lumber, one of the highest volume independent dealers this industry has ever seen.

STANLEY COHEN

Founded Central Hardware, an institution in St. Louis for decades.

JIM COHEN

Stanley's son and Central Hardware president, who presided over its sale to Handy Andy in 1989. Central filed Chapter 11 in 1993.

RAY COONEY

Former Scotty's president, big advocate for centralized warehousing. Became a consultant for Alcoa's retail interests in South America.

JOHN COTTER

Founded Cotter & Co., predecessor to today's TruServ.

DAN COTTER

Cotter & Co. president, son of John, who got wheels rolling on consolidating wholesale distribution channel to create efficiencies and buying clout for independents.

BILL CURRIE

CEO of Universal Forest Products, which he has repositioned as a one-of-a-kind wood products provider and dominant distributor of engineered wood.

NORM DARRER

President of Moore's until its acquisition by Hope Lumber two years ago. Also stepped in and tried to save Mr. HOW Warehouse for Service Merchandise.

CHUCK DAVIS

President of Rickel in the early '80s, when the retailer was owned by Supermarkets General (SGC). Helped engineer management-led leveraged buyout of SGC, whose debt crippled Rickel's operations.

ALONZO G. DECKER JR.

His father, Alonzo G. Decker Sr., co-founded Black & Decker (with Duncan Black) in 1910. Alonzo Jr. started working for the company in 1930, became president in 1960 and retired in 1979 at the age of 70.

FRANK DENNY

Former president of W.R. Grace home center division, who founded Home Centers of America, which became Builders Square after acquisition by Kmart. He now has an Internet business.

RICHARD ENGLAND

Longtime chairman of Hechinger, dubbed the World's Most Unusual Lumberyard."

FRED ERB

Built Erb Lumber, which began in 1922, into a 47-unit operation, before selling to Carolina Holdings in July 1993 for $77.5 million. Also helped develop what became DIY Home Warehouse in Cleveland.

STEVE ERLBAUM

Driving force behind Mr. Goodbuys, one of the more stylish warehouse home centers ever -- if only it could have been profitable.

PAT FARRAH

Home Depot's flamboyant heart, soul and merchandising guru.

BILL FARRELL

Head of American Hardware Manufacturers Association. Turned National Hardware Show into an international event.

DAN FERGUSON

Former Newell chairman who set a standard for buying companies and making staple products and focusing on keeping retailers in stock.

LEONARD GERTLER

Whose family owns All American Home Center, for years a mecca for industry executives that endures in a warehouse-rich L.A.-area market.

ED GOODMAN

founder of Goodman Lumber, one of the best-known dealers in northern California.

J. PETER GRACE

Cantankerous patriarch of W.R. Grace, which in the 1970s acquired home center chains whose combined sales were the highest in the industry in the early 1980s.

MIKE GROSSMAN

Longtime president of Grossman's, a family business that dates back to 1894, and which rose to become the leading lumberyard retailer in New England through the 1970s.

HERBERT HAIMSOHN

Chairman of Handyman, one of the first true home center operators in California. Handyman grew to 88 stores, but its parent, Edison Brothers, liquidated its properties to cash in on the state's real estate boom.

DAVID HANCOCK

Late chairman of Hancock Lumber, and an impactful lumberman in New England, especially through the Northeast Retail Lumber Association.

GEORGE HANZI

One of the industry's genuine innovators. Helped found Handy City and later developed Homecrafters Warehouse. When these ventures were sold or went bust, Hanzi started an upscale hardlines store called Charleston Forge which -- given the popularity of Restoration Hardware today -- was ahead of its time.

JOE HARDY

Founder and chairman of 84 Lumber, who built his company into the largest privately owned lumberyard chain in America. One of the industry's hardest working -- and quirkiest -- personalities.

JOHN HECHINGER SR.

Longtime CEO of Hechinger, a company his father Sidney started in 1919. Hechinger brought a patrician bearing and aesthetic sophistication to a rough-and-tumble business and saw Hechinger become a nonpareil merchant in the 1970s.