Larry Shaw (left) and Ron Ball
The International Casual Furnishings Association (ICFA) announced that it has named Larry Shaw and Ron Ball recipients of the 2010 Lifetime Achievement Awards.
The two will be honored at the casual furniture industry’s annual awards gala to be held on Thursday, Sept. 23, at the Field Museum in Chicago, during the International Casual Furniture and Accessories Market. The prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award is reserved for individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the casual furniture industry and to their individual communities.
Larry Shaw (1928-2009) was co-founder with William Lyon of the Lyon-Shaw wrought iron outdoor furniture company in 1969. He met Shaw at Lee L. Woodard & Sons outdoor furniture in Owosso, Mich., where Shaw went to work in 1956 as an industrial engineer. In 1959 Shaw and Lyon were both involved in opening Woodard’s Carolina Forge division in Salisbury, N.C. Ten years later they left Woodard when it was purchased by the Wickes Corp. and founded Lyon-Shaw.
After Lyon-Shaw was sold in 1987, Shaw returned to Woodard as vice president for product development. Three years later he joined Garden Source in Atlanta as sales manager, then became president of Currey Company as a outgrowth of that business. In his final professional venture, Shaw became chief operating officer of Charleston Forge in Boone, N.C., in 1996, and held that post until his retirement in 2000.
Over the course of his furniture industry career, Shaw served as a director of the National Association of Furniture Manufacturers (1976-1983), president of the Summer and Casual Furniture Manufacturers Association (1982-1983), and president of the sales and marketing division of the American Furniture Manufacturers Association (1986-1987).
Ron Ball is a sales representative for O.W. Lee in Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Georgia and for Windham Castings in Texas and Oklahoma. His 43-year career in sales began with General Electric in 1967 when he served as a sales representative in West Tennessee for the consumer electronics division.
In the mid-1970s, he went to work for Samsonite Furniture, which was purchased by Sunbeam in 1995. Ball started as a territory salesman for Tennessee and Kentucky, then became a regional sales manager for the Southeast and then director of sales. His title changed several more times in the 1980s, and when he departed in the mid-1990s, he was vice president of sales and marketing.
From Sunbeam/Samsonite, Ball went to work as the Winston/Lyon-Shaw representative for Tennessee and Kentucky, then quickly picked up Texas and Oklahoma. He later added the Pompeii and Brown Jordan lines and eventually became regional sales manager for the Southeast for Winston/Brown Jordan. In 2005 he made the shift to O.W. Lee and then added Windham Castings.
"I love what I do, the people I work with, and the dealers I call on," says Ball. "The rep job is the greatest job in this industry."