RIP Ed York

Everyone knew the time was coming.

Still doesn't make it any easier.

Ed you were a true friend.

I know you have gone to a better place.

very sad to hear

he emailed me plenty of excellent info,truly a legend in the CC industry

rest in peace Ed

A.K.A.
Andy

The Grand Master, God of Cleaning is not really gone. This man will be in the minds of seasoned carpet cleaners until they themselves are deceased.

I know of no one who offered more and helped cleaners along the hard, bumpy and winding road to success. There are many who should take their hats off and give many minutes of silence in commemoration to MR. ED YORK.

He was loved and he was hated. But I guarantee within the hatred was a deep down love for what he did for our industry.

I will always remember and respect Ed York.

Kleen Kuip Supply Mart Inc.

New & Used Professional Carpet Cleaning Machines, Restoration Equipment, Training, Service and Supplies

In the spring of 1969, Wanda Borch, a young widow with three children ages 10 to 16, joined a real estate firm in the San Francisco Bay area. Her training included a "how-to-sell" class conducted by an energetic, entertaining, passionate and persuasive divorc� with four children.

Taken with her, the man set about the task of selling Wanda on a life together. Within weeks she was sold. During a frenetic one-week period in July 1969, the couple married, moved to Fresno, bought a house, and became partners in a new business selling carpet-cleaning equipment.

Thus began a 30-plus year odyssey, resulting in an industry bearing the indelible mark of this man, Edgar T. "Ed" York, hands-down Cleanfax's selection as the carpet cleaning industry's Person of the Twentieth Century. (See `Legacy of innovation and promotion,' in this issue)

An eventful life

Born in 1926 in Rupert, ID, Ed York was the only child of a shoe repairman and a waitress. As a child of the Great Depression, he learned to work hard at a very young age and by his early teens was self-supporting.

At 13, York ran away with a carnival.

"I was a carnival barker," he says, laughing unabashedly. His father later caught up with him, and the two made their way to California. Along the way, they lived the life of hoboes - eating in soup kitchens and sleeping in jails, shelters and under bridges.

The family reunited in California and, except for his wartime service in the Navy, York lived in the San Joaquin Valley for the next 25 years.

After the war, he married Velma Harville and started a family. Over the next 20-odd years, York tried his hand at many lines of work, among the more colorful: rodeo clown, daredevil rider, and sports and entertainment promoter. In 1961, he received an award from NASCAR for ingenious promotion. Other occupations included insurance business owner (at age 18), mortgage broker and real estate agent.

York meets carpet cleaning industry . nothing will ever be the same

As fate would have it, Ed York entered the carpet cleaning industry at just the right time, with just the right partner (Please see `Partners in life and business," in this issue), in just the right place for maximum impact.

The late 60s and early 70s were tumultuous times in the carpet cleaning industry, and California was at the center of the tumult. A revolutionary new cleaning system - steam - was challenging the status quo. At the same time, new pricing and marketing models were emerging, wreaking still more havoc on the established order.

Seldom if ever has a brighter or more colorful man than Ed York come to the carpet cleaning industry. The industry's rank-and-file - unremarkable, unrecognized, but good, solid people - energized York, and in turn, he energized them, for he didn't sell equipment, he sold a cause: self-respect, professionalism. And he would fight passionately for his people - especially when the battle was with "the elites," those industry members in leadership positions whom he felt didn't respect or care about their needs.

Crusader and maker of many enemies

York's style - populist, antagonist, contrarian - is at once his greatest strength and the source of his many downfalls. He is both the most loved and respected and the most hated and reviled figure the industry has known. Charming, endearing, rude and maddening all accurately describe different elements of his complex character.

His populist crusades are legendary: leading a group of cleaners in a picket of the Better Business Bureau when it threatened to ban the use of the word "steam" to describe hot water extraction cleaning; skewering DuPont for "anointing" Stanley Steemer the "approved" cleaner of Stainmaster carpet; chiding and challenging "the elites" (including this writer) when York thought they failed to serve the interests of rank-and-file cleaners.

The cost of York's populist crusades has been great and enduring. York's keen insights into complex issues often were undermined by his antagonistic, uncompromising style, leaving him with many bitter enemies and ever fewer defenders.

The consequence is that for all he's done, York's largely an outcast in the industry he played such an important role in molding. "The elites" have taken over many of the babies he and Wanda birthed. Surely he recognizes the irony.

Never one to fully retire

Over the past decade, York has "retired" at least a dozen times, only to return when a new idea comes to his still nimble mind. Ozone cleaning, a discount buyer's club and - in true contrarian fashion - his championing of "dry" cleaning have been causes in recent years.

Even as this story was being prepared, a press release came announcing York's latest "unretirement." It is vintage Ed York:

Ed York Shuns Retirement for Millennium

Eleven years ago, Ed York suffered a heart attack and received a five-bypass open heart surgery. The doctors informed him that if he cut down on his activities he might have an additional five years. Well, he did cut back. After three more heart attacks he retired from all new projects and awaited his final call.

Recently, York bought a new computer and, finally accepting that the Internet is here to stay, he tapped into it and found a new source of energy. With email and a new Web site, York is once again active. He is sending out his Tips N Chat (newsletter) free of charge to anyone who provides him an email address. He plans on providing new marketing and procedure information, along with comments on unresolved issues related to cleaning, free via email. York also will review articles in three leading trade journals, and provide "the other side of the story." To be included, send your email address to York@yorkent.com, or visit his Web site at www.yorkent.com.

Ever the promoter, ever the bombastic iconoclast, ever the compulsive sharer of sometimes brilliant, always entertaining ideas, Ed York's now gone cyber. Readers, send him an email. By all means, subscribe; you will learn something new. Most importantly, thank Ed York for all he's done for your industry, a debt that can never be repaid.

And Ed, welcome to the new millennium. We're glad and fortunate to have you with us.

Greatest Respect for the Man.

It`s not how far you fall...it`s how high you bounce back up...

Welcome to KleenKuip.com's Professional Carpet Cleaners Discussion Forum!

RIP Ed York