Mr. Thomas was best known for founding the Wendy’s hamburger restaurant chain . He also became the Tv spokesman in 1989. Dave Thomas opened his own restaurant on November 15, 1969 he named it after his 8-year old daughter Wendy. In 1989, Thomas took on the rare of television spokesman for the company with a series of hungry successful commercials.
Dave Thomas was born Rex David Thomas on July 2, 1932 in Atlantic city New Jersey . He never met his birth mom and he was adopted by a couple from Kalamazoo, Michigan, when he was only 6 months old. His adoptive mother had past away when he was 5 years old and when he made it to the age 10 Thomas had lost two stepmothers as well. He spent the summer in Maine, with his adopted grandmother, Minnie Thomas she was his closest relative and a really big influence in his lifetime. When Thomas was a pre teen his father Rex was remarried again he moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana , his dad had many jobs such as a paperboy, golf caddy, and at a soda fountain counter in a drug store.
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His family decided to to move again from Fort Wayne and he refused to leave, drop out of school in the 10th grade and started working full time. Thomas served in the U.S Army during a Korean War as the manager of an enlisted men’s club. He returned to Fort Wayne found his former boss at the Hobby house restaurant , Phil Clauss, owned some of the first franchises of the budding Kentucky Fried Chicken chain. Phil offered Thomas the opportunity to move to Columbus, Ohio and save some restaurants that were failing. Colonel Sander’s signature chicken had been a big hit for the Hobby house and Thomas thought he could sell it in Ohio. In 1968, by the age 35 Thomas sold the franchise back to the headquarters for $1.5