Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Dave Thomas, the folksy founder of the Wendy’s hamburger chain whose homespun commercials helped turn it into one of the world’s top fast-food enterprises, died Tuesday of liver cancer. He was 69.
Thomas, who died at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., had been undergoing kidney dialysis for nearly a year and had quadruple heart bypass surgery in 1996.
Thomas became a household name when he began pitching his burgers and fries in TV commercials in 1989 for Wendy’s International, based in Dublin, Ohio.
The smiling, bespectacled Thomas, always wearing a white short-sleeved shirt and red tie, appeared in more than 800 of the humorous ads, sometimes featuring stars such as bluesman B.B. King and soap opera queen Susan Lucci.
“People could identify with him. He looks like America – jolly, happy and slightly overweight,” said Al Ries, marketing strategist at Ries &Ries in Roswell, Ga. “Serious food is white tablecloths. Fast food is fun food, and Dave Thomas portrayed that.”
Thomas was 12 when he got his first restaurant job as a counterman in Knoxville, Tenn.
In 1956, he was working at a barbecue restaurant in Fort Wayne, Ind., when Harland Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame stopped in on a promotional tour. Thomas’ boss bought a KFC franchise, and six years later Thomas came to Columbus to take over four failing Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants.
He sold them back to the founder in 1968 for $1.5 million, making him a millionaire at 35.
He opened his first Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers in Columbus a year later. He named the restaurant after his 8-year-old daughter Melinda Lou, nicknamed Wendy by her siblings.
The chain now has 6,000 restaurants worldwide.
He tried to retire in 1982 but came back in 1989. “They took the focus off the consumer,” he said of the executives who took over the company.
His charity work included the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. Thomas, who was adopted as an infant, created the organization to raise public awareness of adoption.
He is survived by his wife, Lorraine; five children and 16 grandchildren.
Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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