Peggy Traub, President & CEO of Adesso Passes

Furniture World News Desk on 1/16/2014

The members of WithIt announced that they  are mourning the loss of one of their founders, Margaret (Peggy) Traub, after a long and valiant battle with cancer. Peggy was president and chief executive officer of Adesso, and built a successful company in lighting and ready-to-assemble furniture with her business partner Lee Schaak.

Of the fact that Peggy was a well-respected industry leader, there is no doubt. Last year, when WithIt honored her with a Lifetime Achievement Award, Warren Shoulberg, editorial director of Home Textiles Today was quoted in a tribute video: “Peggy Traub is one of those special people in the home business,” he wrote. “She of course comes from retailing royalty, but she has always managed to bring her own touch to the businesses she’s been involved with, separate and apart from her gene pool. Beyond that, however, has been her passion for social issues, both in the home arena and on the larger stage. Very few people can be good at both of those skills. But then again, there are very few people like Peggy Traub.”

Stephanie Lowder, principle at Rarebird Creative, wrote, “Peggy Traub is a master of business, marketing, finance and a champion of women and diversity in business. In the home and furnishings industry she is proof that there is joy to be found in accepting a challenge and taking risk and executing success in a low-odds low-margin business.”

“She had a true dedication to paving the way and enriching all of us, but she did it in a right and smart way,” said Caroline Hipple, chief executive of HB2 Resources. “She was a strong and courageous leader with a wicked sense of humor, but she was also a gentle soul who led in her quiet way, with that twinkle in her eye, and caring for the people around her, men and women. It was never about taking the credit or attention for Peggy, it was about making the path right for other people. She was a bowsprit for all of us in the industry, and I am so grateful to have her known her.”

“Peggy Traub had many of the attributes of a mythical character except she wasn’t one,” says Mary Frye, executive vice president of the North American Home Furnishings Association. “She grew up in a remarkable family, in a fabulous city, paved her own spectacular career, and yet was as approachable as the friend you sold Girl Scout cookies with, worked on school projects with and jumped through your skin over scary ghost stories with at a slumber party. Peggy was bigger than life because she cared so deeply, she planned so effectively and she shared herself so generously. Our lives are diminished by her passing.”

“Peggy was one of the most astute and innovative businesswomen I’ve known in the industry,” said designer Jena Hall. “She was a visionary, an inspiration and a mentor to many of us who forged ahead in the early years to form WithIt. We didn’t know that an organization was about to be born the night we met at the Good Ol’ Girls cigar party in 1997, but Peggy was always trying to help everyone else. She wanted everyone to do better, and to acquire access to the people who could help them do the best. We decided there was really a void for professional women in our industry to meet and network, so we decided to write a mission statement, name the organization, incorporate as a non-profit and present it to all the women we knew in the industry at the time.”

“She hated the blue haze of cigar smoke that hung over those early meetings, so I brought her chocolate cigars and Peg gamely pretended to smoke them, not only because she had a great sense of humor, but because she was generous and supportive and a true believer that this fledgling idea—of bringing women together in a professional association—could really be meaningful, both to the women who would eventually become members and the industry at large,” remembered co-founder Kimberley Wray. “As I got to know her, I learned that, true New Yorker that she was, Peggy didn’t drive. So late at night, after the last cigars were stubbed out at Market, and we were all ready to drop from exhaustion, I’d play taxi service to get her back to her hotel in Winston-Salem. Peggy would tell you we got lost every time, mainly because we were talking so much and laughing so hard every mile of the trip. I learned so much from her in those wee hours, about courage, loyalty, standing up for what you believe in, business and most of all, what it means to have true friends.”

“I recently received a precious note from Peggy,” said Connie Post, retail strategist. “I fell in love with her long ago, and her sense of humor brought me many laughs through the years. When she got sick, I started sending her funny little presents to make her laugh. In the note, she thanked me for not forgetting her. The reality is none of us will ever forget Peggy Traub.”

Remembrances in Peggy’s honor may be made to the Marvin Traub Scholarship Fund or Congregation Beth Simchat Torah or to the LGBT Community Center of New York.