The American Furniture Hall of Fame will induct six furniture and bedding industry leaders, including the late Roy Unger, during a banquet Oct. 23 in High Point, N.C. The annual event is held in conjunction with the fall High Point Market.
Unger’s career spanned more than 50 years and included major contributions to the rise of bedding manufacturers Sealy and Serta. After his retirement, he served as a consultant to Simmons and continued to advocate for the mattress industry until his death in 2004 at age 83.
Unger got his start as a sales manager at Sealy’s Ohio licensee in 1948 and rose through the ranks to become senior vice president of sales and marketing. While at Sealy, he played an important role in the development of the Posturepedic brand, as well as growth of the company’s international business.
In 1981, Unger joined Serta as president and chief executive officer. He is credited with building Serta’s Perfect Sleeper brand, reworking the company’s product line, consolidating licensee plants, doubling manufacturing efficiencies and increasing profitability.
He retired in 1989 and then served for five years as a consultant to Simmons, where he played a key role in the development of its BackCare brand.
Unger served as chairman of the International Sleep Products Association and was honored with its Robert MacMorran Memorial Award in 1986 and Award for Exceptional Service in 1990. He was a founder of ISPA’s Better Sleep Council and served as its chairman emeritus for 14 years.
Other inductees are:
- Don Belgrad Except for a two–year stint at Honeywell, Belgrade spent his entire career at Schnadig International Corp., joining the company founded by his father–in–law Lawrence K. Schnadig as private brands liaison to Sears. He eventually rose to chairman and is now chairman emeritus. During his tenure, he built Schnadig into the largest family–owned producer of upholstery in the United States. In January 2009, he orchestrated the sale of Schnadig to Markor International Furniture.
- George Alexander Bernhardt During the past 46 years, Bernhardt has worked in virtually every position at Bernhardt Furniture Co., including 30 years as chief executive officer. He is crediting with quadrupling the size of the business founded by his grandfather in 1889, making Bernhardt the largest high–end furniture company in the United States. The company also is known as an award–winning design leader in both residential and contract furnishings.
- Donald H. Flanders During the past 60 years, Flanders has built two successful careers in the furniture industry. In 1954, he and his wife, Phala, founded Flanders Mfg. Co. When he sold the company in 1969 to become part of Riverside Furniture Corp., it had more than 350 employees and was one of the largest case goods companies in the Southwest. In 1982, Flanders bought the assets of the Lloyd division of Heywood Wakefield Co. and founded Lloyd/Flanders, a producer of casual furniture. He serves as Lloyd/Flanders chairman.
- John C. Portman Jr. Portman is founder and chairman of AMC Inc. and AmericasMart Atlanta. The more than 7 million–square–foot AmericasMart complex houses one of the world’s largest collections of home furnishings, area rug, gift and apparel showrooms, hosting 19 wholesale markets annually. Portman also leads John Portman & Associates, the architectural firm he founded in 1954, and Portman Holdings, a global design and development entity.
- Gordon Segal With his wife, Carole, Segal built Crate and Barrel into an internationally renowned home furnishings business. From one store in Chicago to more than 100 stores in three countries, Crate and Barrel today employs more than 7,000 associates and supports a vendor network of more than 1,100 companies. For decades, it has been ranked as one of the top 20 furniture stores in the United States.
For more information about the inductees or to register for the dinner, check
www.furniturehalloffame.com.
