Thurmo-Pudic hosts Memorial Day event
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, June 20, 2005
High Point — Bedding maker Thurmo-Pudic USA saluted its American roots with an old-fashioned Memorial Day celebration at its headquarters here.
The company, which makes bedding cushioned with visco-elastic foam, featured an Iraqi war veteran and a U.S. congressman on its program and served a full menu of barbecue and burgers.
Founder Tom Morgan expressed patriotic themes in his comments.
"We were invited to take our technology overseas, but our company is staying right here. ... We believe in American technology and American traditional values," he said.
Morgan described Thurmo-Pudic as "a little company with a big story, and that story is visco-elastic foam." He said Thurmo-Pudic recently got additional investment from what he said was a major company, but did not identify. "We are real excited about that," he said.
U.S. Rep. Howard Coble, a Republican who represents the High Point area, added, "We need to insist on buying American. That's the least we can do."
Another guest was former Army Cpl. Josh Dunlap of Seagrove, N.C., who survived serious injuries in the Iraq war. He now sleeps at home on a bed provided by Thurmo-Pudic, with layers of visco-elastic foam and polyurethane foam.
"When I sleep on that bed I have no pains," said Dunlap, 25. "I feel like that bed fixes my body. I've laid on other beds, but I feel my bed has the best support I've ever experienced."
Morgan described Dunlap as "one of the most incredible stories of survival and victory. I am expecting great things from him."
Dunlap was a passenger in a helicopter shot down in Iraq by surface-to-air missiles. "When they found me I wasn't breathing," he said. "I didn't have a pulse." But he survived that day and another close call as well, when his heart stopped while he was being flown home for treatment.
