I feel like the man I’m referring to should always be called, “Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s.” For one, it distinguishes him — or disambiguates him, in this case — from other Dave Thomases, like the NFL tight end and the guy from Strange Brew. Also, “founder of Wendy’s” just feels like it’s the type of thing that should be inextricably tagged onto the end of your name, assuming you founded Wendy’s. Only you didn’t found Wendy’s. Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s did.
From the Wikipedia: Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s.
Never mind that the actual headline of Thomas’ Wikipedia page reads, “Dave Thomas (American businessman).” I make the rules here.
Thomas was born in Atlantic City to a young, unmarried mother he never knew. He was adopted at six weeks old, lost his mother at age 5, and spent much of his formative years moving around the midwest as his father sought work.
Thomas first entered the restaurant industry at 12 years old, but lost his job after a dispute with the owner, presumably because Thomas already knew way more about making delicious bacon in massive quantities than anyone else and wasn’t willing to compromise. By age 15, he was working in a Fort Wayne, Ind. restaurant called the Hobby House. Thomas eventually dropped out of high school to work at the Hobby House full time.
When the Korean War broke out, Thomas volunteered for the Army so he could have a say in his assignment (as opposed to waiting for the draft). Because of his food service experience, he asked to be sent to the Cook’s and Baker’s School at Fort Benning, Ga. He was ultimately dispatched to a base in Germany, where he cooked for 2000 soldiers until his discharge in 1953.
OK, here comes the big reveal:
After returning from Germany, Thomas went back to work at the Hobby House, where he soon met none other than Col. Harland Sanders. Yeah, that Colonel Sanders.
Sanders was in Indiana looking for franchisees for his new chain, successfully pitching his business to the owners of the Hobby House. They opened several Kentucky Fried Chickens around the midwest and introduced Sanders to their enterprising young head chef, Thomas.
It was Thomas who suggested that Sanders trim the menu and focus on the chicken, that KFC sell chicken in red-striped buckets, and that Sanders himself become the spokesperson and face of the chain. So basically, all the main things about KFC were Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s’ idea.
In the mid-60s, the Clauss family — the Hobby House owners and KFC franchisees — charged Thomas with reviving sales at four struggling locations in Columbus, Ohio. He did so with such aplomb that he was able to sell his shares in those stores to Col. Sanders for $1.5 million.
With that cash, Thomas was able to start Wendy’s, which he named for his daughter even though she’s not actually named Wendy. The rest you know: Wendy’s made really good burgers by fast-food standards and Thomas starred in over 800 commercials for the chain between 1989 and 2002, which is, according to the Wikipedia, some kind of record.
At some point along the way, Thomas was named an honorary Kentucky colonel, just like The Colonel. He also worked to earn his GED because he was concerned that high-school students might point to his success as justification for dropping out. He became an advocate for education and founded the Dave Thomas Education Center in Florida to help prepare young adults for the GED test. Shortly after his death from liver cancer in 2002, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
This is not on his Wikipedia page, but one time me and my friends stole a life-sized standup of Dave Thomas dressed as a hockey goalie from our area Wendy’s. Let the record show that we didn’t do it out of disrespect, only because we wanted to better celebrate a great fast-food hero. Also because we thought life-sized cardboard standups were hilarious. It may still be in my friend’s parents’ basement today.
Also, this is completely subjective, but I feel like Wendy’s restaurants tend to be better-run than the other major fast-food chains, and I like to credit that to Thomas’ work ethic. I can name probably a dozen particularly bad Taco Bells, McDonald’s and Burger Kings, but I can only think of one or two notably bad Wendy’s. Plus the Wendy’s near my house is fantastic, as was the one near where my old band used to practice.
And furthermore, as discussed, Wendy’s is really the only major fast-food chain that makes decent bacon. I assume that secret comes from Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s.
Finally, does anyone remember the Superbar? Shame that didn’t catch on.
Tedquarters 
I remember the superbar, but only vaguely as it wasnt around for that long and I was young. There also werent a ton of Wendy restaurants around where i lived in NJ during the time of the superbar. Just the one in the local mall, which is the only place I ever had the superbar.
Check out this fantastic Wendy’s training video they used during the late 80’s
The Superbar was awesome. I remember back around 3rd grade I used to go nuts on the pudding.
I work in post-production and used to work for the editing house that did ALL 800+ of Dave’s Wendy’s ads. In the five years or so I was employed by them, I probably worked on over 150 commercials. Over time, I became the resident expert of what we called “Wendy’s World.” Did you know that every commercial on the air has a title? It’s true. Dave dressed up in hockey garb would have been called “Hockey Dave” or “Goalie Dave”. (I didn’t say the titles were terribly clever.) Every day, someone would ask me something like “What was the one where Dave pretended to ride a bull?” I would stop and think about it and say “Rodeo Dave!” We have dozens and dozens of archive tapes with every Wendy’s spot they ever did. I worked on a spot with Dave and Hayden Panitierre from ‘Heroes’ when she was like five years old. T.R. Knight from ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ did a bunch too. It was a fun job for someone starting out in the business.
I never met Dave but, in a way, felt like I knew him. Spending that many years looking at him, watching his footage, talking about him, I developed a powerful (albeit one-sided) relationship with the man. And from what I hear, he was always a total sweetheart. At the end, when he his health was going, they had to change how he was used in the commercials. Instead on dudding him up in full hockey gear and shooting pucks at him, they began to shoot all his stuff on green screen and sticking him in at the end. You could see in the footage how much slower he was but he never complained or didn’t give it his all.
I didn’t know his connection to KFC and it truly is remarkable. I did know about his rather tough childhood. We used to do a few spots every year for the Dave Thomas Foundation. Helping out adopted kids was his passion and he dedicated his life (and countless millions of dollars) to them.
I actually have a signed picture of Dave somewhere. “To Matt, all the best, Dave Thomas.” When he passed I felt really sad.
Awesome, that’s pretty awesome. Not many people can say they have Dave Thomas’ autograph.
And I do remember the superbar. The one in Ossining was LEGIT
I Simply Adore the top header concept, very well done.
did you do it yourself?
Excellent post but I was wanting to know if you could write a litte more on this topic?
I’d be very thankful if you could elaborate a little
bit more. Cheers!