Casual association honoring Primock, O.W. Lee execs for lifetime achievement
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, August 17, 2008
Joe Primock, former owner of Denver-based Broadway Furniture, and O.W. Lee principals Bob and Beverly Lee will receive Lifetime Achievement Awards at the 2008 Apollo Awards banquet Sept. 17 during the International Casual Furniture & Accessories Market in Chicago.
Presented by the International Casual Furnishings Assn., the prestigious award honors individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the casual furniture industry and to their communities.
After Primock served on two destroyers in the Western Pacific from 1954-1956, he returned home to his family's business, Broadway Furniture, which was at that time a furniture, appliance and carpeting store. He worked in the warehouse and made deliveries before moving to the sales floor. He served as a buyer, held various management positions and eventually assumed part ownership in 1970.
Ten years later, he became the sole owner as his father and cousin retired. In the early 1990s, he dropped appliances and carpeting and narrowed the furniture lineup to focus on casual furniture, dinettes and barstools.
Primock retired in 2006.
O.W. Lee was founded in 1947 by Bob Lee's father, Oddist Winfred Lee. O.W. was a welder who made gates, railings and custom furniture. If the items required upholstery, his wife, Gerda, sewed the cushions.
In 1954, Bob Brown and Hugh Jordan, who had teamed up to form Brown Jordan at about the same time Lee started his company, became part owners in O.W. Lee Inc.
Bob Lee entered the business at age 14, working after school to file castings, cut steel bar and fetch kapok — the fluffy byproduct of kapok tree seed pods — which was the filling of choice for outdoor cushions at that time.
Beverly was 15 years old when she met Bob, then 18 and driving a lavender 1957 Chevy that had “Come Go With Me” painted on the side. “I did, and the rest is history,” Beverly said.
Beverly eventually joined Bob in running the Ontario, Calif.-based business by answering phones, paying bills, keeping the books and handling credit and collections.
All of the couple's three children worked part-time in the family business through their high school years, and Terri Lee Rogers and Brian continue with the business today. A grandson, Paul, became the fourth generation to contribute to the business, having recently created some product designs the company has implemented.
The Lees bought out partners Brown and Jordan in the early 1970s, and O.W. retired in 1977. Bob retired in the late 1990s, and Beverly shortly thereafter.
Beverly serves on the board of the LeRoy Haynes Center, a nonprofit group in LaVerne, Calif., that maintains a school for autistic children and a group home for children unable to stay in their own homes.
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