Harold Reid, NWFA Founding Father, Dies at 95

John Harold Reid, who helped establish the National Wood Flooring Association in December 1985 and led installation firm Trinity Floor Company (Dallas) as owner and president, passed away Feb. 5 after experiencing a stroke; he was 95."The wood flooring industry lost a giant today," said Fortane Adhesives' John Mayers. "Mr. Reid taught me to respect and appreciate the beauty of a wood floor, and I learned to respect him even more. Having known him all my adult life, there will be other great people in the wood flooring industry, but there will never be another 'Mr. Reid.'"

Reid was actively involved in multiple flooring associations. For many years, Reid was a fixture at the NOFMA/NWFA Installation School in Memphis, Tenn. He was a one of the original group who met to form the NWFA and became a charter NWFA member. For a long time, he was the longest-standing associate member of the Maple Flooring Manufacturers Association (MFMA). In 1986 Reid founded the North Texas Flooring Association, and he also served as president of the Dallas Floor Covering Association. All of Reid's hard work over the years resulted in his being inducted into the NWFA Hall of Fame along with other founding fathers in 1994, as well as being inducted to the MFMA Hall of Fame in 2004.

Timber Laminate Flooring the top Flooring for Your Properties.Trinity Hardwood Dist. Inc.'s Bill Matney, a long-time friend of Reid's, recalls that Reid was the prototypical hard worker. "When Harold started, they didn't have those pneumatic nailers, much less the automatic nailers. They used cut nails," Matney said. "To prove yourself as a good mechanic, you had to drive the nail in one swing. Those guys back then could lay every bit as many square feet as the guys today with all these pneumatic nailers. That is the kind of guy he was. He really worked hard."