Bedding execs pay tribute to leadership of Hertz

Longtime bedding executives lost a friend and colleague when Walter Hertz, president of Sealy Mattress Co. of New Jersey, died earlier this year. Hertz, 78, joined Sealy Mattress Co. of New Jersey in Paterson, N.J., in 1957 and worked with his father there until his father's death in 1982. Walter Hertz headed the company, Sealy's only domestic bedding licensee, for 53 years. The business remains in the ownership of the Hertz family.

The obituary that we ran on Hertz in our March 7 issue said he is remembered as a modest, insightful leader whose words carried great weight with the many industry figures who turned to him for counsel on a regular basis. I've received a number of tributes to Hertz since I prepared that obituary, and share them with you this week.

When Gary Fazio joined Sealy Inc. in 1981, Walter Hertz was the first person to come up to Fazio at his first national meeting and to welcome him to the Sealy family. "He didn't have to do that," Fazio said, "but he did, and I felt much more comfortable inside of that large and impressive group of professionals. I will never forget that."
Fazio, now CEO of Simmons, remembers Hertz as "purely a quality and class man. He will be sorely missed by his family and his extended family in the bedding industry."

"Walter was a fine gentleman who really enjoyed the bedding business," added bedding veteran Kevin Toman, president of Englander. "People were surprised that he did not sell to Ohio Mattress after the settlement with Sealy. But Walter wanted a place to hang his hat and keep control of the family business."

Bedding veteran Gerry Borreggine knew Hertz as a supplier to 40 Winks, the Philadelphia-based sleep shop that Borreggine ran with his father, Frank.

"My Dad worked with him when he was a department store buyer, and we worked with him at 40 Winks," said Borreggine, now president of Therapedic. "Walter Hertz was a fine gentleman, as is his son, David. Working with Walter Hertz and his family personified the very finest attributes of a national brand, combined with the flexibility of a local entrepreneur. It was a personal relationship forged between the local entrepreneurial factory and the local entrepreneurial retailer."

The industry lost a quiet, respected leader with the death of Walter Hertz. Ours would be a better industry if we had more executives cut from his special cloth.