MFMA
Hall of Fame
 Charles
H. Anderson
Charles H. "Andy" Anderson
was born March 25, 1902, in Chicago, Illinois. Andy's first exposure
to flooring was with A.L.
Jackson Co., in Chicago, who installed many of the
floors in the Chicago World's Fair-The Century of Progress-which opened
in 1933. During
his tenure with A.L. Jackson Co., Andy developed the
ability to collaborate with architects to produce quality specifications,
which served him
well throughout his career.
In 1935 he started Anderson & Cooper,
a specialty contracting company, principally dealing
in hardwood floors. Andy bought out his
partner in 1938 and chartered the Chas. H. Anderson
Floor Co., Inc. He continued his close relationships
with the architectural community.
The company sold and installed floors for many large
national bakeries and other factories using maple flooring.
MFMA mills supplied his
maple flooring. In 1939 Andy sold and took a contract
to install over one million feet of mastic-set maple
flooring for Studebacker Motors
in South Bend, Indiana. The company earned a stellar
reputation for also installing gymnasium and other
maple sports floors.
Andy started a second company, A&W Floors, with Joseph Wickless
managing. Joseph left the business soon after its inception, and Andy
renamed the company Northwest Floor & Carpet, specializing in
residential floors. He subsequently turned the business
over to relatives. It is still in operation under another
name.
Following World War II, the services of the Chas.
H. Anderson Floor Co. were in demand throughout the
Midwest. Andy set up another
company
and warehouse in Minneapolis under the name of Anderson-Ladd
Floors managed by John Ladd. This company installed
maple sport floors west
into the Dakotas, Nebraska, Iowa, and Kansas. By
the late 1950s Andy set up a branch office of Chas.
H. Anderson Floors in the Kansas City
area. He sent Robert Lankford to manage the business.
During these years, Andy's three locations together
were perhaps the
largest specialty
maple floor contracting business in the country.
In
the mid-1950s Andy developed the "Air-Thrust" rubber-cushioned
plywood subfloor for wood floors still used today.
Not only did he promote and install his floor system
in Midwest market areas, he set
up distributors for Air-Thrust throughout the U.S.
and Canada, as well as in Europe, Australia, New Zealand,
and southeast Asia.
Encouraged by several MFMA manufacturers, Andy
arranged and chaired
a meeting in Pittsburgh in the 1950s with other prominent
floor installers including Walter Leonard of Standard
Floors in Pittsburgh, Robert
Stoehr of Cincinnati Floors, George Storm of Storm
Floors in New York City, and Joe Bauer of Whitcomb-Bauer
Floor in Detroit, and others.
The Wood Flooring Institute (W.F.I.) was organized
at this meeting.
During his last years, over a period
of time, Andy sold his contracting companies and
other investments to others who he felt were competent
to manage them not only for their own betterment
but also for the welfare of customers. He passed away November 18,
1988
at the age
of 86 at his home in Delray Beach, Florida.
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