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In Memoriam
TOM PUGH
October 1952 - December 2012
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Tom Pugh.
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A Burst of Energy Cut Short
Tom Pugh - manufacturer's rep, chairman of the HPBA Government Affairs Committee, writer for Hearth & Home, husband, friend - died on Friday, Dec. 14, 2012.
Tom had suffered a heart attack in June, and the doctor had not yet decided whether to undertake by-pass surgery. (Ah, after six months, doc?)
I spoke with Tom a day or so prior to that.
He was driving from Seattle to Vancouver and, as usual, was in high spirits and very talkative.
His laughter boomed over the airwaves into my ears. He loved to laugh and would do so at every opportunity - his laugh was infectious.
He also loved life, and good food, good wine and good friends, of which he had many more than most of us.
And he loved his work, calling on distributors and retailers in the U.S. and Canada. I used to tell him to slow down, take it easy, lose weight. He would laugh and tell me how much loved working with distributors and dealers. It energized him. In reference to his weight, his answer was simply, "I have no will power."
Although Tom could control most things in his life with intellect and hard work, apparently he couldn't control himself.
The word workaholic seems pathetically weak in reference to Tom. He thrived on work, exulted in it and was damn good at it - no matter what task he was undertaking. Listening to Tom engage on an issue, or plan some campaign, was like watching a burst of energy.
He owned and ran the rep firm Lloyd Pugh & Associates, based in Seattle and started by his dad. Depending on the economy, he would have one to four employees to help him cover most of North America. Recently, he was down to one employee due to the downturn in the economy and housing.
For many, many years his main account was ICC Chimneys on the outskirts of Montreal. That relationship was as firm and warm as any I've ever seen.
He also represented Town & Country for a few years. T&C was the first clean-faced gas fireplace to enter the market; it was Tom's idea, which he brought to Pacific Energy.
Tom was able to see opportunity when and where others could not.
He was smart, but a lot of people are smart. He backed it up with long hours and hard work.
Some years back, Tom saw the need for an expanded Government Affairs effort by the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association (HPBA) and devoted an incredible amount of time as a member of that committee and, for many years, its chairman.
(Last Thursday, on that ride to Vancouver, Tom said he would be stepping down as chairman in March; he was devoting about 25 percent of his time to that task, he said, and needed to give more time to his sales job.)
The fact is, for many years Tom Pugh devoted 25 percent of his time to the HPBA and major issues that affect every one of us in this business.
For that alone, Tom Pugh deserves the thanks of everyone in the hearth industry.
The relationship Tom had with Hearth & Home magazine began a number of decades ago. He would come up with an idea for an article, or series of articles, and we would work together to make it happen.
One example was a 13-part series on hearth retailing in which Tom provided solid and great ideas to help retailers increase profits and stability, e.g., own your building, take advantage of every discount available, maintain margins. It was so well received that we turned it into a 170-page soft-cover book titled "Blueprint for Sucess." To this day, I still have retailers telling me how important that book and those ideas have been to their success.
When Town & Country reached the market, Tom felt that interior designers didn't quite understand where it fit into the history of the hearth. That became a three-part series in Hearth & Home, and a seminar that Tom took on the road and presented to groups of designers.
There was little in life that intimidated Tom Pugh.
(On that ride to Vancouver, Tom and I discussed his next articles, a three-part series on The Future of the Hearth Industry that would begin in March (Tom could never write short, concise articles; he was much more of a long-form, series or book guy. Actually, he could also talk up a storm.)
Tom Pugh was a man of large intellect, large appetites and a large heart. He lived a fast-paced, interesting and productive life. Everyone in the hearth industry is impacted by his loss - whether they know it or not.
- Richard Wright
Editor
Hearth & Home
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The Fireplace Business
Changed Last Weekend
Tom Pugh passed away Friday night, quietly, in his sleep at home in Seattle.
It doesn't matter if you were a customer or a competitor, a dealer, distributor, manufacturer, publisher or HPBA employee - the fireplace business changed for you last weekend. You may not realize it, but it will never be the same with Tom Pugh gone.
For those of us fortunate enough to have been his friend, and there are a lot of us, life won't be the same. Truth is, it would be hard to overstate the impact Tom Pugh has had on our little industry - and on his friends. While a lot of us older guys more or less accidentally fell into what became the fireplace industry, Tom made a choice to leave a very promising career in law to join his dad Lloyd as a sales rep.
Those of us who knew Tom, and especially those of us who liked to argue with him, won't be surprised to hear that he only lost one case (his last after he'd already decided to join his dad) in his years as a prosecuting attorney. Tom specialized in white-collar crime, one of the most complicated and difficult crimes to prosecute.
His dad, Lloyd, was our mentor. We liked to say we learned, "The truth according to Lloyd." Lloyd had an incredible natural sales ability. He understood what motivates people; he understood business and he understood that the best way to make a lot of money (both Lloyd and Tom were particularly good at that) was to make even more money for both their customers and the manufacturers they represented.
Lloyd taught us that integrity was essential for everyone in the chain to succeed in the long term, and Lloyd didn't believe in short-term business. In over 30 years of working with Tom, I can't think of a single case where he ever forgot that lesson.
Tom inherited much of Lloyd's natural abilities, but he took Lloyd's concepts to a level his dad never imagined. He saw education, particularly business education, as a way to help everyone in the industry become more successful. Over the years this lead to countless articles, books, seminars, videos - all created, written and delivered by Tom on his own time.
ICC paid for some of the direct publishing and distribution costs, but Tom was never compensated for any of the real work. He simply recognized the need and took it on himself to do the best he could to help make all of us more successful.
Tom believed that a strong HPBA was essential to our industry and, year after year, he devoted a huge amount of his personal time to making the association stronger. His impact on the HPBA over the years touched on all areas; it would take pages just to summarize his efforts, so I won't even try.
Tom was often a controversial figure. Time after time he used his passion, intellect and debating skills to sell reluctant HPBA boards on his vision. It was a very bumpy ride in the early years when he worked to ensure that the association represented all regions fairly.
The most important role of the HPBA is Government Affairs; it's also the most complex and difficult work. Tom acted as the Government Affairs chairman for many years, arguably the industry's most important volunteer role.
He was a fierce competitor. Now there's an understatement. We had many, many successful and fun (well, maybe not for the other guys) advertising and promotional campaigns over the years. Working on promotions with Tom often boiled down to a negotiation about just how far we could, or should, go. He was a hard man to hold back.
That man really, really knew how to sell. Tom and Lloyd sold almost $140 million of our products alone; that's a lot of commissions, folks. I'm going to miss signing those big checks; he earned every penny.
Over the years Tom had many other successful lines. In the early years it was Security Chimneys and Osburn. Later on Tom's original concept for a large, purely decorative gas fireplace resulted in Town & Country, which created an entire market segment.
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Town & Country.
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Tom always had a vision of the future for our industry, which he shared to the benefit of all his manufacturers, customers and the HPBA.
He was a passionate man, at work and at play. He worked as hard as anyone I know, but always had time for his friends. There were many of us, from inside and outside the industry. It always amazed me that such a busy guy could be such a thoughtful and generous friend. Those of us fortunate enough to have been there will always remember his 50th and 60th birthday parties as testaments to his generosity and love of life. He certainly knew how to throw a party.
It's impossible to think about Tom without thinking about Wendy, his beautiful wife and partner for 33 years. Tom often made self-deprecating comments about people's reactions the first time they met Wendy. At first glance they did seem an odd match - a petite, beautiful and refined lady and an underdressed, oversized bigmouth.
But what a wonderful, loving, fun couple they made. Tom was a man of passion in all aspects of his life, but nothing surpassed the passion he had for Wendy.
Goodbye our friend, your life wasn't nearly long enough, but it was well lived and we are all the better for having known you.
- Ray Bonar
Co-owner
ICC Chimney/RSF Fireplaces
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Tom Pugh Loved the Hearth Industry
The hearth industry lost a leader with the passing of Tom Pugh over the weekend. Everyone in the hearth industry will miss Tom for his many contributions and many, many hours of service. He could certainly be controversial, but the bottom line was that he was extremely passionate about the industry and HPBA.
Outside of his own business, Tom was most likely known to people for his work in Government Affairs. He chaired HPBA's Government Affairs Committee twice, starting in the late 1990s. During his stewardship of the committee, the association's involvement in Government Affairs increased dramatically; increasing regulatory scrutiny of the industry made that necessary.
He had a talent for identifying new trends and adding them to the committee's agenda. The fact that HPBA is well equipped to defend the industry now - when there are challenges from the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Consumer Product Safety Commission - is due in large part to Tom's efforts.
One of Tom's newest concerns was the next wave of government challenges, as restrictive Green building codes are adopted at the state and local levels. I worked directly with Tom in managing the Government Affairs Committee from 2000 to 2006, and again over the past year, and came to respect his judgment, his sharp intellect and his ability to focus on key issues.
Tom was also very committed to education. His trademark courses were Blueprint for Success, The Art of Sales, Surviving the Storm: Managing a Retail Store in an Economic Downturn, and All Politics Is Local. It's no exaggeration to say that hundreds, if not thousands, of people in the industry attended at least one of his courses.
 | | February 2009 Hearth & Home. |
Tom was also instrumental in establishing HPBA's Government Affairs Academy, which was designed to enable a cadre of members to organize and represent the industry at the state and local levels. The Academy included instruction in media relations, lobbying and giving testimony.
The Academy lives on, and is a fitting tribute to Tom's efforts
A reminiscence would not be complete without mentioning another side of Tom: He was no stranger to controversy. In fact, Tom often sought it out. For one thing, it was his way of getting people's attention on issues that were not, in his opinion, being adequately faced. It was also due to his legal training, in which the truth comes out after hearing advocates for each side do battle with their ideas.
The key thing about Tom - and which I appreciated after emotions calmed down - was that he usually made a good point in identifying an issue and a possible solution. And he often identified issues that others were unwilling or uncomfortable to face. More often than not, once he raised an issue, it was addressed.
The thing about Tom that transcended all else was his passion for the hearth industry. He loved the industry and its people and wanted them to prosper. He gave countless hours as a volunteer to HPBA, the Northwest HPBA, HPBA Canada and the Western Chapter of HPBA Canada.
If you asked him for help - something that I did several times just over the last year - he agreed to volunteer more time for the greater good. This commitment was recognized by HPBA in 2007 when he received the Flame of Honor Award, which we grant only occasionally to someone who has made an extraordinary contribution to the industry.
One of the things that I love about our industry, besides our products, are our people. And it is always sad when an extraordinary person passes from the scene. Tom will be missed and will be hard to replace.
- Jack Goldman
President & CEO
Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association
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