henry armfield foscue
Henry Foscue (b.1904 d.1985) received a degree in Business Administration in 1926 from the University of North Carolina, and went to work for the Globe Parlor Furniture Company. Over 44 years, he became president and chairman, retiring in 1970 as principal owner.
He became a director of the Southern Furniture Manufacturers Association in 1935, became president in 1949; then chairman. He received the highest honor of that group, the James T. Ryan Award, in 1968. He was designated "Man of the Year" by the Chicago American Furniture Mart in 1948.
In 1958, he was the leader of a group of manufacturers who established the Furniture Manufacturing and Management curriculum at North Carolina State University. Realizing that the educational activity required funding, in 1959 he became founding president of The Furniture Foundation, and served until his death. An endowed professorship and a student loan fund in his name commemorate these efforts. He was director of the Home Economics Foundation at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, and instrumental in founding their program in interior design. For these educational activities, he received a doctorate from NCSU in 1964, from UNC-G in 1966, and from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1981. He was the only non-governor of North Carolina to receive these three doctorates.
He joined the board of the Southern Furniture Exposition Building (now IHFC) in 1931. He was president from 1958 until his death, leading in seven of the ten major expansions of the market building.