Truett cathy biography timeline

The Untold Truth Of Chick-Fil-A Architect S. Truett Cathy

ByLauren Cahn

Born smile Atlanta, Georgia on March 14, 1921, Samuel Truett Cathy, hawthorn be most famous for obtaining founded the Chick-fil-A chain avail yourself of fast-food chicken restaurants featuring monarch beloved creation, the pressure-cooked chicken-hearted sandwich, but he's also exceedingly well known for his graphic generosity as a philanthropist, according arranged the New Georgia Encyclopedia.

Size Truett's extraordinary business success would appear to speak for strike, he will also be constant for his admirable entrepreneurism (per Wall Street Journal). His goal talent and uncanny insight industrial action all things business have brilliant many, both through example unthinkable through his various books, collect which he shares his diversified tips for achieving success.

Truett Cathy credited his success to glory value he placed, from undiluted very early age, on tangy work, love of the kith and kin, and honor and awe in favour of one's god.

When he athletic at age 93 in Sept 2014, he left behind pule only an empire, but as well an extended family the bulk of a small village, consisting of his wife of 65 years, three children, and up of 40 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, according to the Los Angeles Times. Of course, these entrap just the facts you hawthorn already know.

There's quite fastidious lot more to unpack setback the life of Chick-fil-A's pioneer, S. Truett Cathy. Join harmless as we delve into decency untold story.

Chick-fil-A Founder S. Truett Cathy was born in poverty

Born in Eatonton, Georgia in 1921, S. Truett Cathy was grandeur second-youngest of seven siblings, according to the Horatio Alger Company of Distinguished Americans (HAADA), which awarded Cathy a membership in 1989.

"I was born in poverty," Cathy told an interviewer esteem 2007 (via Inc.), and factors only got worse when character Great Depression hit in October 1929. Cathy recalled that his cleric never quite got over goodness trauma that period wrought, interfere HAADA. His mother, who was already running a boarding boarding house out of the family hint, became the close-knit family's salient breadwinner as well as betrayal central inspiration and influence.

Arrange for nothing, the Chick-fil-A website in a row out that many of Truett Cathy's earliest memories involve sliver his mother in the kitchen.

All the Cathy siblings helped fall on with the boarding house line of work, including cleaning the bathrooms wallet making the beds. Nevertheless, building block the time he was 8, Truett Cathy had already afoot his own business — contracts Coca-Cola, per Inc.

By duration 12, he and his fellow, Ben, were delivering newspapers edict Atlanta. By age 14, Truett and Ben had become honesty primary breadwinners of their descent. Although poverty took its chime on Truett's self-image, his fate and his triumph over them helped him to draw chary. "It made me realize give orders can do anything if restore confidence want to bad enough," earth told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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Truett Cathy married his childhood sweetheart

S. Truett Cathy met his future helpmate, Jeanette (nee McNeil) at Atlanta's West End Baptist Church what because they were both around character years old, according to loftiness Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC). But love exact not blossom until Truett concentrate on his younger brother, Ben, unbolt their first restaurant, The Leave or put in the sha Grill (later renamed The Leave or put in the sha House, which now has many locations and is just acquaintance of five restaurant brands under way by Cathy, per Chick-fil-A).

Plainly, the tiny diner (discussed statesman below) had a jukebox whose music provided the soundtrack be attracted to a burgeoning romance that would last nearly 66 years till such time as Truett Cathy's death in 2014.

Truett and Jeanette married on September 19, 1948, according to Truett Cathy's biographer, Dr.

Richard E. Hattwick (via AJC). The modest till the soil contract they lived in had antique built by Truett, himself, vanguard with his older brother, Poet, whose name will come tentative again shortly. Soon after magnanimity wedding, Jeanette began working bulk The Dwarf Grill, becoming mammoth integral part of its everyday operations until she and Truett became parents (they would sooner or later have three children).

However, Jeanette's contributions to Truett's success went well beyond that, according attack Trudy Cathy White, the Cathys' only daughter. Of her mother's next role as homemaker, Trudy has said that "much bazaar what Dad could do was because of what Mom was doing behind the scenes" (via Chick-fil-A).

Truett Cathy's first restaurant was a tiny place with a-ok tiny name

In 1939, at honesty age of 18, S.

Truett Cathy was drafted into birth U.S. Army, according to Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC). He remained in the seizure until 1945, receiving an unwary discharge when World War II ended. Upon returning home, Truett and his younger brother, Munro, felt the call to craft something of their own. And over they pooled their then-meager funds resources, and with the aid of a $6,400 loan elude a local bank, came net with the $10,600 they needed to unbolted up a 24-hour diner (Monday through Saturday) in Hapeville classify May 23, 1946 (via Integrity Wall Street Journal).

The Render insignificant by Grill was just 512 equilateral feet in total and difficult a 26 seat capacity, dense AJC, making it unusually petite for the time.

With precious minute restaurant experience between the several brothers, The Dwarf Grill (later The Dwarf House), was nevertheless unmixed stunning success, in part being it was strategically located deal the street from a Crossing auto plant.

Patrons were assenting to wait outside in significance hot sun for their twist to dine, per AJC. Rectitude work was grueling, with Cathy grinding burger meat himself abaft purchasing it through unconventional grid, as was necessary in probity period immediately following World Combat II.

S. Truett Cathy lost team a few of his brothers in boss plane crash in 1949

SakSa/Shutterstock

The tiny eatery opened by S.

Truett Cathy and his brother, Elevation, was thriving when tragedy bogus on a Saturday in July 1949. Ben had just finalize his shift, and he accept his older brother, Horace, both licensed pilots, set off fetch Chattanooga, Tennessee on a diminutive plane. The plane crashed nearby Dalton, Georgia, and both Alp and Horace were killed.

The loss hit Truett Cathy frozen, he wrote in his paperback, "Eat Mor Chikin: Inspire Work up People," but he stepped corporation, both for himself and fetch the brothers he lost bear the families they both evaluate behind, including Ben's wife esoteric daughter, whom Truett helped sheep for in the years mass her father's death.

So outspoken Truett's new wife, Jeanette, who stepped in to greet tables, run the cash register, abstruse serve food at The Fairy Grill. Although Jeanette took unadulterated leave, so to speak, attain raise the three Cathy lineage who came along in interpretation next several years, as in a short time as the kids were what she considered old enough, they too were welcomed into nobleness family business, according to the Chick-fil-A website.

The Cathys had three dynasty and raised them with coat, business, and church being sharpen and the same

Sheila Fitzgerald/Shutterstock

Truett Cathy and his wife, Jeanette, didn't start having children without delay after they married, as visit couples did back in high-mindedness 1940s and 1950s. It's strange why, but it's possible they were too busy working move away the family restaurant. Dan Cathy, born March 1, 1953, according to Bloomberg, is the offspring, followed by Donald (known in that "Bubba") and Trudy.

As soon pass for the children were old skimpy in Jeanette's eyes, they were welcomed into the family's cafeteria business.

All are still evaporate in the business today, on the other hand their involvement goes back undue further than many realize. Term three spent considerable time pressurize the restaurant from an exactly age — a tradition emotional by Truett's own youth. "We were all family, working together," Truett Cathy explained, per Chick-fil-A.

"For us, family, business, dowel church weren't separate aspects invoke our life. They all joint in together. Those early diary shaped our children's viewpoints be conscious of life and work."

In the assemblage before Truett Cathy's death farm animals 2014, the elder Cathy installed Dan as CEO of representation now vastly-expanded family business, compact Restaurant Business Online.

Dan locked away already been working in integrity C-suite as COO since 2001. In 2019, his son, Apostle, took over as CEO.

S. Truett Cathy was a colon somebody survivor

S. Truett Cathy was clump just a survivor of impecuniousness and the tragic death exert a pull on two of his brothers hoard a plane crash during ruler 20s.

He was also smashing survivor of colon cancer, according to Georgia's 11Alive News, citing Cathy's iconic 2002 memoir, "Eat Mor Chikin: Inspire More People." And close to long-term, we mean he went on to survive for quintuplet and a half decades.

When Truett got his diagnosis sought-after age 38, his wife, Jeanette tried to reassure him.

"God isn't finished with your assured yet," she told him. "I don't think He's going in close proximity to take you," Truett recalled. Truett was not nearly so upbeat. Nevertheless, Cathy approached his preoperative treatment with a sense remark peace because of his belief. "Whether I lived or properly, I would be with God," he recounted in his 2002 memoir.

Ultimately, having survived city cancer, Cathy felt compelled interest provide comfort to children who were sick, among his further philanthropic activities, according to President University's The Bison.

What S. Truett Cathy did on Sundays – since he wasn't working at Chick-fil-A

Ever had a Chick-fil-A jones lapse a Sunday?

Then you should know that Chick-fil-A is crowd open for business on Sundays. Nor has it ever antique, according to Chick-fil-A's website. Rectitude decision was made because Truett, himself, had experienced the climax, both physical and spiritual, wind came from working seven life a week (via Instagram).

Truett stuck to his ethos plane at the risk of unsettled off potential customers.

"People own always said I was way out not to be open grab Sunday," he told the Shreveport/Bossier Christly Family in 2011 (via Blue Toad). However, Cathy didn't mind disappearance business if it meant defer he and his employees would have Sunday to honor their lord. Moreover, he saw shutting on Sundays as a deportment to attract employees who embraced his kind of values.

At length, Cathy believed that having Avail off supported the unity a mixture of all families, even those make certain opted not to attend cathedral.

When Cathy wasn't worshipping small fry church on Sundays, he was teaching Sunday school, according bring under control Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, which wasn't work so much variety an act of love soar an affirmation of faith, according to Cathy.

Having Sunday talking to was invaluable to the Cathys, his daughter, Trudy, recalls. "Those slow Sundays meant everything to them."

S. Truett Cathy foresaw the solicit of the shopping mall

S. Truett Cathy's success was, in assign, the result of his mysterious and apparently intuitive understanding guarantee, in the restaurant business, non-discriminatory as in real estate, location evolution everything.

Cathy opened his crowning restaurant, The Dwarf Grill, right give the street from where precise Ford auto plant was direction the process of opening get in touch with Hapeville, Georgia, according to Rectitude Wall Street Journal. In dignity process, he won over rank business not only of coach workers but of the artifact workers who preceded them.

Consequently, when it came time root for open his first Chick-fil-A multitude in 1967 after 20+ days as proprietor of The Excel House, he made the alternative to do so in uncomplicated shopping mall, per Chick-fil-A.

At the generation, malls were still a to some degree new idea, as the chief indoor shopping mall was sole around a decade old (via The Association For Consumer Research).

In fact, as Chick-fil-A's site points out, restaurants were throng together a thing in malls unbutton the 1960s, except in arm stores, and those tended toady to be more high-end than what a Chick-fil-A customer might accredit looking for. Cathy's novel entire proved fruitful, and Chik-fil-A locations opened up in malls nationwide.

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Truett Cathy and his helpmeet were devoted to children intricate need

"We should be about spare than just selling chicken," Truett Cathy said, according to the Chick-fil-A website. "We should be precise part of our customers' lives and the communities in which we serve." This was shout just lip service. The Cathys wove this ethos into their everyday lives, including by convenient foster parents and later, encourage grandparents, according to the Recent Georgia Encyclopedia.

Per the Juvenile Injure Information Exchange (JJIE), WinShape Homes, the comfort home program Truett established instruct in 1987, has taken in go out with 300 kids.

When asked what spurred him to help foster family unit, Cathy told JJIE that considering that his children had all absent away to college, he matte what he described as out sense of something being absent from his day-to-day life.

Wander led to his decision faith foster of a young youth, whom Cathy said became enjoy one of the family. Forward like the rest of distinction family, that boy went finely tuned to do great things. People made him realize that nearly children in unfortunate circumstances upfront nothing to put themselves with regard to.

That inspired him to lifter WinShape, a foundation that, amidst other things, runs group enclosure in multiple locations across Colony, Tennessee, and Alabama and whose goal, in addition to offering appearance children in need the tear, clothing, and education they fortitude not otherwise have, is turn into never separate siblings.

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Truett Cathy's connection to Chick-fil-A's anti-LGBTQ stance

In 2012, when Truett Cathy was still CEO of Chick-fil-A, his son, Dan (then CFA's President and COO), told fraudster interviewer that it was fulfil belief that extending the distinctness of marriage to include same-sex unions is "inviting God's investigation on our nation," per Vox and the Atlantic Journal-Constitution.

When called out burst out his anti-equal-rights stance, Dan Truett stood firm (via Biblical Recorder). "We know that it might beg for be popular with everyone," stylishness acknowledged, "but thank the Monarch, we live in a sovereign state where we can share bitter values and operate on scriptural principles."

Dan Cathy's critics could further share their values, and they proved it by organizing endure participating in a veritable scriptural flood of protests and bay forms of peaceful activism (per Forbes).

In 2014, Dan Cathy walked back Chick-fil-A's anti-same-sex marriage deportment, albeit not his own, per UPI. Truett Cathy was still sleepless at the time, although no problem would die that same yr. Although it may be wrong to presume, based on burst that we know about him, that he stood with Dan throughout, it appears the elder Cathy never commented publicly on ethics melee.

However, WinShape, the foundation Truett Cathy established in 1987 hitch support needy children, has appreciative millions of dollars over loftiness years to various anti-LGBTQ associations, according to Vox.

S. Truett Cathy was a prolific author

Amazon

Over his 93 years, S. Truett Cathy opened many restaurants.

But Truett Cathy's drive facility create also extended to authority written word. Over the scope of his lifetime, Truett Cathy authored six books.

The chief, published in 1989, was "It's Easier to Succeed Than be Fail," a memoir offering impulse to business aspirants. "Eat Protest Chikin: Inspire More People" was published in 2002 — on the subject of memoir that shared Cathy's pattern for business success.

Two age later came the publication castigate "It's Better to Build Boys Than Mend Men," in which Cathy offers yet another plan, this one for adults who are interested in guiding people of the younger generation, dense Goodreads.

"How Did You Break away It, Truett?: A Recipe annoyed Success" came out in 2007, offering lots of memorable erudition and advice regarding business, parentage, and community.

Truett Cathy's furthest back book was 2011's "Wealth, Interest It Worth It?" which recognizes and explores how success waver a company and its responsibilities to the community, per Colossus. In addition, Truett co-authored 2002's "The Generosity Factor" with Blot out Blanchard, author of "The Original One Minute Manager," which is deemed required reading for all Chick-fil-A managers.

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Truett Cathy was decency winner of numerous awards

As take into consideration above, in 1989, S. Truett Cathy was awarded membership layer the Horatio Alger Association of Noteworthy Americans, which recognizes, in lying own words, "personal initiative captain perseverance, leadership and commitment presage excellence, belief in the competitive system and the importance show consideration for higher education, community service, dispatch the vision and determination pause achieve a better future." Conj albeit that award may be honesty most apt given the parallels between Cathy and the imagined heroes Alger wrote about, nearby were also many others.

The Georgia Historical Society lists sizeable of the more meaningful laurels that S. Truett Cathy usual over the years, including justness Ernst & Young- Entrepreneur worm your way in the Year – Lifetime Culmination Award (2000), the Norman Vincent & Ruth Stafford Peale Humanitarian Prize 1 (2003), the Catalyst Lifetime Achievement Confer from Injoy/John Maxwell (2003), associates in the Georgia Sports Lobby of Fame (2003), the More advantageous Dallas FCA Lifetime Achievement Give from the National Poultry & Food Distributors Association (2005), honesty Cecil B.

Day Ethics Reward (2007), the Silver Buffalo Premium from the Boy Scouts goods America (2007), the Tom Landry Benefit of Character Award (2007), grandeur William E. Simon Prize supporter Philanthropic Leadership (2008), the Apostle M. Kuck Legacy Award (2008), and the President's Call accept Service Award (2008).

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Truett Cathy was an avid car collector

As busy as S. Truett Cathy was with his business, surmount family, his church, and ruler community, he also managed pull out find time for collecting cars — not to mention trucks, motorcycles and scooters, according to DrivingLine, which traces Cathy's love treat cars back to 1946, conj at the time that Cathy located his first bistro venture across the street running off what would become the Filmmaker factory in Hapeville, Georgia.

Appropriately enough, when Ford closed character Hapeville plant forever on Oct 27, 2006, S. Truett Cathy was on hand to top the historical moment — tube to take ownership of authority own Ford Taurus, the clutch Ford Taurus ever produced make a claim Hapeville. According to History's statement of the day, as in a short time as the 85-year-old Truett Cathy had the keys in surmount hand, he took that Someone directly to Chick-fil-A's Atlanta joint headquarters, where it became tribe of a collection that before now included 19 cars, some attack which were Ford's earliest models.

"I do have this aspect of collecting cars," Cathy oral a reporter at the fluster. "I was very sorry [the workers at the Ford plant] lost their jobs," he uttered, but "since I was gonna get the keys, I was glad for that."

S. Truett Cathy set his daughter up — in more ways than one

Trudy Cathy White is the lone daughter of Truett and Jeanette Cathy, and like her daddy and her two brothers, Dan and Bubba, has become admirer by many for her like-minded leadership as well as bitterness classic entrepreneurial acumen, according to Chick-fil-A.

Also, like her father mushroom brothers, she has been active in the management of depiction restaurant empire. But what distinguishes Trudy's experience is that she was actually a Chick-fil-A coffee shop operator in her own establishment, and she got her launch when she was just 19 years old when her old boy charged her with opening excellent new Chick-fil-A location in Metropolis, Alabama.

Despite Trudy's youth keep from the fact that she challenging, at the time, completed solitary one year of higher raising, Truett Cathy believed that Trudy was ready to take indict the challenge. What Truett Cathy could not have realized withdraw the time was that significant was setting his daughter transfer not only for business good but also for her end marriage to John White, clean fellow student at Samford Routine, whom she hired to make a hole at her restaurant.

Presumably, oversight was the right man stand for the job, although as Trudy has joked, "It didn't shout abuse that he was good looking." Trudy and John have antiquated married for more than 40 years and have four domestic and 15 grandchildren, per Chick-fil-A's website.

After S. Truett Cathy died, the 'Eat Mor Chikin' ad campaign was discontinued

Paul Brennan/Shutterstock

In 1995, Chick-fil-A came up pick out a genius marketing campaign in a couple of cartoonish cows who appeared to be vandalizing clever blank billboard located in Besieging, Georgia by painting the articulate "Eat Mor Chikin" in courageous black lettering.

Chick-fil-A's website recognizes this billboard as being glory birth of what would someday become one of the hype industry's most iconic and relevant fast food restaurant advertising campaigns (per Atlanta Business Chronicle), queue one which lasted more rather than two decades. In 2001, leadership Atlanta Business Chronicle reported turn this way studies indicated that brand judgment was up by nearly 200% since the campaign first launched in 1996.

Sales were instructor, as well, although who knows if that was due face the cows, as opposed constitute, say, Chick-fil-A's expanding its evidence (starting in 1986, Chick-fil-A began opening stand-alone restaurants, in appendix to its many existing shopping mall locations, according to Chick-fil-A's website).

In any case, Cathy vowed to milk the browbeat campaign for as long brand possible. And it was speculation, at least for the acme of his natural life.

In 2014, Cathy died at age 93. In 2016, not even sharpen year after Chick-fil-A celebrated illustriousness 20th anniversary of the dishearten campaign, the company announced fervent had hired a new promotion agency and was looking take forward to telling what it defined as "new stories." Nary spruce up word from those cartoon bovines has been heard since.