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Industry Pioneer Passes Away
Posted by: BillGardner | March 27, 2008
David Cunningham, founder of Plaid Enterprises and Craftrends magazine, passed away yesterday. Funeral services will be Sunday, March 30, at St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church, 13560 Cogburn Rd., Alpharetta, Georgia. Visitation at the church begins at 2 p.m., and the memorial service begins at 3 p.m. In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made to Marr Inc., 2801 Clearview Place, Atlanta, Georgia 30340. Cunningham began his career in the craft business approximately 50 years ago and started Plaid in 1971. Craftrends was born in 1982. However, According to an interview with Cunningham published in the July 1992 issue of Craftrends, Cunningham’s first foray into crafts was in the late 1950s or early ‘60s when he opened Crest-Art Inc., a wholesale firm serving Binders, a chain art supply store. In 1963, he formed Cunningham Art Products, which he sold in 1968 for “a little over $2 million.” In 1989 he sold Plaid to DKM Ltd., a subsidiary of Dyson, Kissner, and Moran, for $20 million in cash. In the 1992 Craftrends article, John McDonald, who worked for Cunningham for 25 years, said, “Many companies were inspired, I think, by Dave’s adventurous and successful example at Cunningham Art Products, and expanded their horizons. I truly believe his professionalism and leadership helped lay a foundation on which Plaid and the industry could build. The result is a more prosperous, professional industry.” Employees were loyal to Cunningham, with many of them staying with him for more than 20 years. That loyalty, according to McDonald, was because of the open, trusting atmosphere Cunningham created. And he believed in rewarding employees with bonuses and trips to company meetings in Bermuda, Cancun, Key West, the Dominican Republic, and on cruises. Also in the Craftrends interview, Cunningham was asked what advice he would give someone entering the craft field. What he said is still true today: “You’ve got to be a competitor. Success is hard work. I don’t even know if I did more things right than I did wrong, but the things I did right were bigger. There were a lot of failures, though, and most people can’t stand failure. Today, you’ve got to be tough. You’ve got to keep coming back. That’s advice I’d give – it ain’t easy.” In an interview with Baron’s magazine in 1972, Cunningham talked about why crafts was growing so quickly. He said, crafts “fill an underlying need. With the pressures on us today, this kind of activity keeps us out of the nuthouse.” Some things never change.
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