In 1932 in a time when 13 million were unemployed, Dave Thomas was born in Atlanta City. Being born out of wedlock, he was adopted 3 months later by a young couple. At 5 years old his adoptive mother - the only mother he knew, died. It was now up to his father to raise him. His father took him to restaurants for meals every night. They moved to oakridge when Dave was 12 years of age - in the second world war. He was hired on at a local drugstore "Wall Greens" but fired soon afterward. Wanting to prove his value to his father, he applied for a job at a restaurant. In order to be hired on as a part of the staff, he had to lie about his age.
Stating that he was 16 years old - he was hired. He had a dream about starting his own chain of restaurants. At 15 years old he moved to Fort Wayne and lived at the YMCA, getting a job at the Hobby House Restaurant.
During the Korean War, rather than waiting for the the draft, he volunteered for the U.S. Army to have some choice in assignments. Having food production and service experience, Thomas requested the Cook's and Baker's School at Fort Benning, Georgia. He was sent overseas to Germany as a mess sergeant and was responsible for the daily meals of 2000 soldiers. He later attributed his success in fast food to this experience in feeding large groups. Thomas was honorably discharged in 1953, with the rank of Staff Sergeant.
Before and after Thomas' Army enlistment he worked at a restaurant owed by the Clauss family, located in Fort Wayne, Indiana. During that time, Kentucky Fried Chicken founder, Col. Harland Sanders, came to Ft. Wayne to find established restaurants to buy franchises from him. At first, Thomas, who was the head cook of the restaurant, and the Clausses declined Sanders' offer, but the Colonel persisted and the Clauss family franchised their restaurant with KFC and later also owned many other KFC franchises in the midwest. During this time, Thomas worked with Sanders on many projects to make KFC more profitable and to give it brand recognition. Among other things Thomas suggested to Sanders that were implemented; reduce the number of items on the menu, focusing on a signature dish, and introduced the trademark sign featuring a revolving red-striped bucket of chicken. Thomas also suggested Sanders make commercials that he appear in himself. Thomas was sent by the Clauss family in the mid-1960's to help turn around four ailing KFC stores they owned in Columbus, Ohio. By 1968 he had increased sales in the four fried chicken restaurants so much that he sold his share in them back to Sanders for more than $1.5 million. This experience would prove invaluable to Thomas when he began Wendy's about a year later.
Thomas opened his first Wendy's in Columbus, Ohio, in 1969. (This original restaurant would remain operational until March 2, 2007, when it was closed due to lagging sales.)[5] Thomas named the restaurant after his eight-year-old daughter Melinda Lou, whose nickname was Wendy, stemming from the child's inability to say her own name at a young age. According to Bio TV, Dave claims himself that people nicknamed his daughter "Wenda. Not Wendy but Wenda. So one day, I looked at her and said...'I'm going to call it Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers'."[6]
In 1982, Thomas resigned from his day-to-day operations at Wendy’s. However, by 1985, several company business decisions, including an awkward new breakfast menu and loss in brand awareness due to fizzled marketing efforts caused 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 a significant role as the TV spokesman in a series of commercials for the brand. Thomas was not a natural actor, and initially, his performances were criticized as stiff and ineffective by advertising critics. By 1990, after efforts by Wendy's agency, Backer Spielvolgel Bates, to get humor into the campaign, a decision was made to portray Thomas in a more self-deprecating and folksy manner, which proved much more popular with test audiences.[8] Consumer brand awareness of Wendy's eventually regained levels it had not achieved since octagenarian Clara Peller's wildly popular "Where's The Beef" campaign of 1984. With his natural self-effacing style and his relaxed manner, Thomas quickly became 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,[1] it was clear that Thomas played a major role in Wendy’s status as the country's third most popular burger restaurant.
Thomas, realizing that his success as a high school dropout might convince other teenagers to quit school (something he later admitted was a mistake), became a student at Coconut Creek High School. He earned a GED in 1993. He later earned an honorary membership of Duke University's Sigma Phi Epsilon. Thomas was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1999.
Thomas was a Freemason, and a member of the Shriners. He was also an honorary Kentucky colonel, as was former boss Colonel Sanders.
Thomas was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003.
Thomas died at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after a decade-long battle 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.
