TORONTO– Three direct marketing leaders were inducted into the Direct Marketing Association’s Hall of Fame yesterday at the Hall of Fame Awards Luncheon held here during the DMA conference.
The honors went to Jim Kobs, chairman/CEO of Kobs Gregory Passavant, Chicago; and Eddie Smith, a champion of the direct marketing industry who in 1952 founded the National Wholesale Co. Lexington, NC. Catalog pioneer Eddie Bauer, who died in 1986, received the honor posthumously. Bill Michael, vice president of direct marketing for Edddie Bauer Inc., accepted the award.
The DMA Hall of Fame honors outstanding contributions to the practice, growth, and stature of direct marketing. The DMA Board of Directors elect as many as four leaders to the Hall of Fame each year. Candidates are recommended by the Hall of Fame Committee of Judges, which is chaired by Richard C. Wolter, chairman/CEO of the Columbia House Co.
Kobs and Smith thanked the DMA and others in the industry for helping them achieve their success.
“We have a great old saying down South that if you can find a turtle sitting at the top of a fence post, you can readily assume he didn’t get there by himself,” Smith said. “and I’ll tell you that that really applies here.”
