American Furniture Hall Of Fame Adds Three Members At The High Point Market

Furniture World Magazine

The American Furniture Hall of Fame has added three new members for 1998: Henry Talmadge Link, Earl N. Phillips, Sr., and George Alden Thornton, Jr. The new members, selected from 10 nominees, were inducted during the tenth annual banquet gala held at the International Home Furnishings Center's ballroom on the opening night of Market, October 15, 1998. Henry Talmadge Link (b1889 - d1983) organized Dixie Furniture Company in 1936 with 90 employees. In 1940, after visits to automobile factories in Detroit, he equipped Dixie Furniture Company with motorized conveyors, thus introducing the industry to mass production of product. For nearly half a century, Mr. Link was the man at the helm and Dixie grew and spread to become the largest manufacturer of bedroom furniture in the world. They then added Link-Taylor in 1949, Young-Hinkle in 1962, Dixie-Linwood in 1972, and Wicker by Henry Link in 1984. Henry Link accompanied then governor of North Carolina, Luther Hodges to Europe in the 1950's in search of business for the furniture industry. Earl N. Phillips (b1875 - d1975) was an entrepreneur in several fields of home furnishings. During his fifty-year career, he founded many companies to provide services to the furniture industry: Phillips Mills; First Factors, National Springs Corporation and co-founded Phillips Foscue. He served as Mayor of High Point and was founding chairman of many community institutions such as the String and Splinter Club and the world-renowned Hatteras Yacht Company. He endowed the Phillips School of Business at High Point University. George Alden Thornton, Jr. (1915 -1980) was chairman of the board of Heilig-Meyers from 1970 until his death. When his nine stores merged with Heilig-Meyers' eighteen stores, the combined volume of Meyers-Thornton was 11 million dollars. The new merger provided the opportunity to use Mr. Thornton's 40 years of retail experience, and his visionary development of a corporate centralized management team, system and warehouse, to form the foundation for Heilig-Meyers growth. None of the principals could have ever envisioned the Heilig-Meyers of today that has grown in 29 years to over 1,000 stores. The American Furniture Hall of Fame is an all industry effort organized to honor those individuals whose outstanding achievements have contributed to the continued growth and development of the American furniture industry and to research, collect and preserve the cultural, economic and artistic history. Fore more information call the AFHF at 336 882 5900.