Dave Thomas (American businessman)

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See the David Thomas disambiguation page for other people with this name.

Rex David "Dave" Thomas (July 2, 1932 – January 8, 2002) was an American businessman and philanthropist. Thomas was the founder and chief executive officer of Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers, a fast-food restaurant chain specializing in hamburgers. He is also known for personally appearing in 652 commercial advertisements for the chain from 1989 to 2002 – more than any other person in television history.

Thomas was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He never knew or met either of his birth parents. He was adopted by a family in Michigan as an infant; he would become a well-known advocate for adoption, founding the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption in 1992. His adoptive mother's name was Minnie Sinclair. She called herself his "adoptive grandmother" because she was an elderly woman by the time of his adoption.

Thomas started his first restaurant job as a busboy at a Hobby House restaurant in Fort Wayne, Indiana. When his family decided to move once again, he refused, dropping out of high school at age 15 to work full time. He moved in with the family that owned the restaurant and focused on ways to promote it. It was at the Hobby House that he met a waitress named Lorraine who would become his wife in 1956.

During the Korean War, rather than waiting for the draft, he volunteered for the U.S. Army to have some choice in assignments. Having experience in overseeing the feeding of others, Thomas chose Cook and Bakers School at Fort Benning, Georgia. He was sent overseas to Germany as a mess sergeant and was responsible for feeding 2000 soldiers daily. He later attributed his success in fast food to this experience in mass feedings. Thomas was honorably discharged in 1953, with the rank of staff sergeant.

He was then offered a chance to turn around a failing Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant. Working with KFC founder Col. Harland Sanders, Dave turned four failing stores into million-dollar successes. He later sold his KFC franchises and opened his first Wendy's in Columbus, Ohio, in 1969.

In 1982, Thomas resigned from his day-to-day operations at Wendy’s. However, business mistakes would soon bring about problems and hurt sales, causing the company’s new president to urge Thomas back into a more active role with Wendy's. Thomas began to visit franchises and espouse his hardworking, so-called “mop-bucket attitude.” In 1989, he took on an significant role as the TV spokesman in the company's series of highly successful commercials.

With his folksy style and his relaxed pitch for his restaurants, Thomas would quickly become a household name. A company survey during the 1990s, a decade during which Thomas starred in every Wendy’s commercial that aired, found that 90% of Americans knew who Thomas was. After more than 800 commercials, it was clear that Thomas played a major role in Wendy’s status as the country's third most popular burger restaurant (behind McDonald’s and Burger King).[1]

Thomas, realizing that his success as a high school dropout might convince other teenagers to leave school (something he later admitted was a mistake), became a student at Coconut Creek High School. He earned a GED in 1993.

Thomas was a Freemason, was member of the Shriners and was initiated as an honorary member of Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity.

Thomas died in 2002 at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after a decade-long struggle with liver cancer. He was buried in Union Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio. At the time of his death, there were more than 6,000 Wendy's restaurants operating in North America.