Lawrence R. Pugh, a former VF Corp. chairman and CEO, was down to earth even when he was running a $5 billion corporation.
Pugh, 82, who died Thursday in Florida, led the apparel manufacturer from 1982 to 1995 when it was headquartered in Wyomissing,
“He was very kind to the community,” said Anthony F. Grimm, retired president of the Berks County Chamber of Commerce. “He always granted time for discussion. He was easy to get to talk to.”
Grimm, who worked with Pugh on many programs, said he last saw Pugh in May when the former CEO came to see their friend Samuel A. McCullough be honored by the Caron Treatment Centers.
Under Pugh’s leadership, Grimm said, VF contributed financially to the Chamber and many causes in the community. Pugh supported VF’s executives who shared their expertise with community groups, from Boy Scouts to the United Way, Grimm said.
Pugh also served as chairman of Reading Hospital’s board of directors.
Kevin K. Murphy, president of the Berks County Community Foundation, extended condolences to the Pugh family.
Pugh had amazing influence as a business leader, Murphy said, and served on several nonprofit boards. He was on the community foundation’s original board of directors.
“He was one of the hardest working board members we ever had,” Murphy said. “Larry Pugh created a culture of giving in Berks County.”
In 1998, when VF moved its headquarters from Wyomissing to Greensboro, N.C., the firm endowed the Lawrence R. Pugh VF Corporation Fund, a $3 million donation to the foundation.
The gift came in annual $300,000 installments over 10 years and doubled the foundation’s funding.
At the time, Donald van Roden, then foundation chairman, called the gift an unprecedented statement of corporate caring and community support.
Donna Reed, Reading city councilwoman, recalled interviewing Pugh when she was a Reading Eagle reporter.
The interview took place on a cold winter day in Pugh’s Wyomissing office.
At the end of the interview, Pugh smiled and acknowledged the uncharacteristic hiking boots he was wearing with his business suit.
He hiked up one of his trouser legs to show the calf-length heavy knitted socks he wore with the boots.
“These will keep you warm and dry,” he said, adding that the socks were VF products.
“The pride and the impish manner of him that day spoke volumes of the man – Ivy League educated, at the height of his corporate power in a Fortune 500 company, but underneath the down-to-earth salesman who knew personal testimony was the best way to make his point,” Reed recalled.
Staff writer Ron Devlin contributed to this report.
Contact Lisa Scheid: 610-371-5049 or lscheid@readingeagle.com.
