Jack Coates, One of NWFA Founding Fathers, Passes Away at 85

Jack Coates, longtime wood flooring veteran, in 2002.Jack Coates, a lifetime wood flooring professional and one of the founders of the National Wood Flooring Association, has died at the age of 85. Coates celebrated Christmas with his family, then suffered a stroke on Dec. 27 and passed away on Jan. 2.

Coates was a fixture in the industry for decades, known for his role with longtime distributor Golden State Flooring and his involvement with industry associations, most notably as one of the founders of the NWFA. He was one of the original group of men who each donated seed money to formally create the association in December 1985, and he was inducted into the NWFA Hall of Fame in 1994.

Chris Coates, Jack’s daughter and herself a well-known figure in the industry, having served as NWFA president from 1996–1997, was kind enough to share this first-person account of Jack’s life with Hardwood Floors:

Jack was born on July 31, 1929, a third-generation San Franciscan. He was the son of Helen and Clifford Coates, and brother to Richard, Marcia, and Judy Coates.

Golden State Flooring had been founded by Clifford Coates and Allen Harris Sr. of Harris Mfg. in Johnson City, Tenn. Shortly before Jack was born in 1929, the two partners sold the company to a local lumber company, JE Higgins. Cliff would remain the manager of Golden State Flooring until his death in 1973.

Jack started his working life at age 13, unloading flooring from rail cars on Rhode Island St. in San Francisco. He often credited his success in sports to those early days. Not only did that hard labor build a significant physical strength, it focused his efforts on making school teams, because only when the team had after-school practice would his father let him off work.

Jack Coates speaks at a meeting forming the NWFA in 1985.A proud graduate of Lincoln High School, Jack played running back for the Mustangs, participating in the 1942 Thanksgiving Day Championship at Kezar Stadium and tying Polytechnic, 7-7.
He earned two Golden Glove titles and went on to play football at Menlo College, St. Mary’s College, and San Francisco State.

Following his discharge from the Army in 1952, Jack worked in the warehouse at Golden State Flooring along with his brother Dick as a lumber handler and truck driver. They both often worked Saturdays on long-haul deliveries as far away as Reno, Nev., to the new schools, colleges and housing tracts being built after World War II.

That extra day of work helped boost their weekly pay to $153.30 by 1963. By that year each brother carried a mortgage, and Dick and his wife Pat had three children, Mike, Rick and Lori, while Jack and Aurita had four children: Chris, Janet, Kim, and Brad. Matt Coates wouldn’t be born to Jack and Aurita until January 1966.

At this meeting in St. Louis in December 1985, the National Wood Flooring Association was officially created. Seen are (seated, left to right): Jack Wilcox, H.G. Roane Company; Ralph Singer, Diamond "W" Supply; Lon Musolf, Lon Musolf Flooring; Roland Holder, Gentry & Holder Floors; Harold Reid, Trinity Floor Company; (standing, left to right): Gary Reynolds, Galleher Hardwoods; Steve Brown, Swift-Brown Distributors; Art Pedicini, Geysir Sales Corporation; Jack Coates, Golden State Flooring; Richard Steeneck, Hoboken Wood Floors; Virgil Hendricks, Mid-West Floor Company; Eldon Robbins, Mid-West Floor Company; and Keijo Hyvonen, Kelly-Goodwin Company.Dick and Jack shared a company pickup as their sole means of transport to and from work, leaving their family cars with their wives, Pat and Aurita, and their growing families. Each week one brother would be driver, picking up and dropping off the other brother and keeping the truck over the weekend for personal use and household chores.

Golden State’s business continued to grow primarily supplying flooring and a few sundries to the flooring contractors installing the hundreds of tract homes being built in Northern California.

When Cliff’s bookkeeper died in April 1966, Jack and Dick joined their father in the Golden State office, with Jack picking up the bookkeeping responsibilities. That same year, wall-to-wall carpet was approved for homes with federally funded loans. The effect on Golden State’s business was dramatic: In just three months sales contracted by a third of their former volume, and in six months it was just half.

The company struggled for a while but slowly regained strength as the direction changed from volume to upgraded products. The contractors who survived along with Golden State Flooring focused on offering a wider range with an emphasis on quality and service. Powernail, 3M, Pines International (predecessor to DuraSeal), adhesives and other sundries showed frequent increasing dollar amounts in the ledgers after 1966. According to Jack, this new direction was the saving of Golden State and the best thing that ever happened to the industry.

Jack Coates, at right, with fellow NWFA founding father Gary Reynolds at the Golden State open house in 1987. Reynolds told HF in a 2010 interview about the founding of the NWFA, ""The most significant decision made by the early group was to include the contractors. Some manufacturers and distributors wanted to exclude them. Jack Coates was a strong voice in keeping the contractors equal."A devastating fire in 1971 destroyed most of the warehouse and inventory. Jack picked up his father that early morning, as Cliff was too shaken to drive. Jack always recalled his dad’s sorrow and grief. In 1973, Cliff Coates died, leaving the business management to his sons, Dick and Jack. By the mid-1970’s, business was booming once again and much more profitable than it was in the early 1950’s. Jack rose to vice president of JE Higgins and was involved in various industry associations.

He was a strong proponent of education, and with the encouragement of Fred Isackson, one of San Francisco’s prominent flooring contractors sent me (his daughter, Chris) to various job sites to learn how it was done. Jack sent as many employees as he could each term to the twice-yearly NOFMA schools in Memphis, Tenn., and when Mickey Moore invited me as an assistant instructor, supported the time and costs involved.

He often spoke of a pivotal meeting of the Maple Flooring Manufacturers Association in 1985. After all associate members were asked to leave the room so the member mills could conduct their business, Jack and several others retired to the bar and voiced their dissatisfaction with an association that didn’t want their full participation. Howard Olansky, the journalist and publisher of Western Floors magazine, told them all to quit complaining and start their own association. Jack always credited Howard for putting the idea into their heads and goading them to do the right thing.

Jack served on the NWFA board, various committees and, when requested by Claude Taylor of Memphis Hardwood, encouraged me to join the Membership Committee, launching my NWFA career and exposure to the national market. Later he loaned my services to an acquaintance of his in Australia, Keith Sullivan, general manager of Boral Timber, and his export manager, John Wallis, who were frustrated by their unsuccessful efforts to launch a U.S. flooring line.

From left to right, Harris-Tarkett's David Wootton, Aurita Coates and Jack Coates celebrate his retirement from the industry in 1994.Jack was inducted into the NWFA Hall of Fame in 1994, the same year he retired. Unable to attend the induction ceremony due to a recent operation, he called me on the phone that afternoon and asked me to say a few words at the presentation. He asked me to thank the association, but specifically to thank the flooring contractors, because his personal success and the growth of the industry had always been a result of their support and hard work.

After retirement Jack continued for several years to serve on the company board of directors, stayed active playing golf, skiing, traveling and enjoying his friends and family. He will be sorely missed by his family and all who knew him, laughed, played, and worked with him. The family requests any memorial donations be made to the NWFA scholarship fund.