Virgil Hendricks, NWFA Founding Father, Dies at 93

Hendricks injured himself moving snow last month, resulting in some paralysis of his lower limbs and two smaller heart attacks before succumbing to heart failure, said NWFA CEO Ed Korczak, noting that Hendricks had celebrated his 93rd birthday on Feb. 18.

"Virgil was the guiding force, founding father and first president of NWFA," Korczak said. Hendricks was the owner of distributor Lockwood Flooring and contracting company Mid-West Floor Company in May 1985 when an after-hours conversation during a Maple Flooring Manufacturers Association meeting led to a discussion about forming an industry-wide national wood flooring association. The NWFA was officially formed in December of that year, with Hendricks as the first president, a position he held until the NWFA convention in April 1990, when he was inducted into the NWFA Hall of Fame.

In an interview late last year Hendricks said he and the other NWFA founders wanted to bring all segments of the industry together. "I don't thinking our wildest dreams we imagined the NWFA would be the organization it is today," he said, speaking from his office at Mid-West Floor Company, where he still came to work every day. "The people who put this thing together had great chemistry, they worked together beautifully, they had a passion for the industry and they had a vision; and I think that vision came through and exceeded our expectations ... It was a lot of fun, and I had more fun than anybody ... and to think that things started right here in my office," he said.

"There's nobody in the industry that had more passion for his businesses and people than Virgil Hendricks," said George Roth, general manager at Lockwood Flooring. "He always said, many times, the sum of his businesses were his people; that's what he cared most about … His hobbies, his passions, were real simple: They were his businesses, and those businesses were defined by his people. Working with him for 10 years, I never knew him to have a hobby outside of his businesses. It was a real honor and pleasure to work for Virgil."

"He was a great mentor to me, and I have a lot of respect for him because he put this whole thing together," said Jonny McSwain, the first female NWFA president, in an interview last year.

Visitation will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 22 from 3-9 p.m. at Schrader Funeral Home at 14960 Manchester Road in Ballwin, Mo. The funeral will be on Wednesday, Feb. 23 at 1 p.m. at Schrader Funeral Home. His obituary from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch may be viewed here.

For more about Hendricks' involvement in the early days of NWFA, read the "25 Years of NWFA" article.

In April 2003, Virgil Hendricks helps cut the opening ribbon to the headquarters of the association he helped found 18 years earlier.

Below is a feature story written about Hendricks coinciding with his induction into the NWFA Hall of Fame in 1990.