Clint Engel — Furniture Today,
*Also see pictures from the FMCA conference at FMCA social scene


PHILADELPHIA — La-Z-Boy’s Dave Carpenter and Bernhardt’s Angie Mills took top honors at the Furniture Manufacturers Credit Assn. meeting here for longtime service to the industry and the association.

Mills, director of customer financial services at Bernhardt, received the R.K. Rudicil II Award for Excellence in credit. She was selected by FMCA outgoing President Ron Teglas of Lexington Home Brands, who praised Mills for her work over the past 18 months on FMCA committees, including her ongoing chairmanship of the continuing education committee, which lined up speakers for the annual meeting and other FMCA events.

Mills has worked or Bernhardt for 21 years, the past 15 years in the credit department. She is the incoming FMCA vice president.

Carpenter, who has worked in the industry since 1978, was the 11th person named to the FMCA’s Hall of Fame. He was surprised by guest visitors to the awards dinner, including his secretary of 28 years, Joan Davis, and his boss, La-Z-Boy Treasurer Mark Stegeman.

A two-term FMCA president and vice president and a steady board member, Carpenter was praised by Stegeman and others for his character and for his strength during a recent bout with cancer. He also won praise for helping navigate the Ladd and then La-Z-Boy companies through turbulent retail waters.

“We’re very proud to have Dave in our family,” Stegeman said. He said that as director of credit, Carpenter has mastered the balance between “understanding the needs of marketing and sales” and applying sound credit principles and managing risk.

Davis read from the letters of well-wishers, including former Furniture|Today Business Editor Henry Howard and former Ladd chief Fred Schuermann, who said Carpenter had a “sixth sense” that “allowed Ladd to dodge many an industry bullet.”

To be named to the Hall of Fame, honorees must have served on the FMCA board for at least 10 years, be past recipients of the Rudicil award and a former president of the association, among other things.

Among other honorees here was Lyndall Howell of Hooker, who received the Credit Manager of the Year award for the FMCA Virginia group. Lexington’s Ron Teglas took the honor for the central North Carolina Group, and Susanne Drum received the Steve Osborne Credit Manager of the Year award for western North Carolina.

Also, 10 companies received the FMCA Heritage Award for outstanding support of the association. They were Bassett, Bernhardt, Joseph Dean, Lane, Lexington, Pulaski, Stanley, Thomasville, Universal and Vanguard.

FMCA’s newly elected officers are Ron Clark of Bassett, president; Angie Mills, vice president; Beverly Curtis of Vanguard, secretary; and Pulaski’s Paul Purcell, re-elected treasurer.

Next year’s meeting will be Sept. 19–21 in St. Louis.