Volume: 100 |  Issue: 1 |  Download

Welcome to the 100th edition of the Commercial Flooring Report. I thank all of you for the continued support over the years and your quest for knowledge of the industry.

I want to give you a brief walk in my shoes and why we occupy such a unique, one of a kind, position. It began in 1971 when I went to work for Rochester Linoleum and Carpet in Rochester, NY, my home town, after graduating college, yes I went to college. I was schlepping in the warehouse at first, sold on the floor and then managed one of their five stores selling carpet and hard surface flooring. Not one to be content and tied down I transitioned into the carpet cleaning business, joined two associations and from there took every class I could on flooring. One of these classes was the RBI Carpet Seminar instructed by Reg Burnett. He quickly became one of my mentors. Somewhere in the 90's Reg asked me to be the author of his newsletter, called the Commercial Carpet Digest. My writing career actually be- gan with Floor Covering News with Al Wahnon, another of my mentors, with my column The Claims File which I wrote for over 26 years.