Alvin Daughtridge, retired vice president of Fairfield Chair, has received the first Lifetime Achievement Award from the Specialized Furniture Carriers, a division of the American Home Furnishings Alliance (AHFA).
Alvin Daughtridge
Henceforth, the award will carry Daughtridge’s name, being presented annually as the Alvin Daughtridge Lifetime Achievement Award.
A native of Rocky Mount, N.C., Daughtridge began his career more than 53 years ago at Lenoir-based Fairfield Chair, originally a manufacturer of upholstered seating for the residential, office and hospitality industries. In recent years, the company expanded into importing wood desks, dining tables and accent furniture. Although he began in the personnel department, Daughtridge rose through the ranks and has long served as vice president.
When transportation and logistics came under his operational responsibilities at Fairfield, Daughtridge soon began lending his expertise to the industry organizations that focused on these areas. He was one of the first board members of the Furniture Shippers Association and helped guide the growth of AHFA’s transportation and logistics division. He served on AHFA’s Transportation and Logistics Council, as well as on the industry’s Supply Chain Council.
Outside the home furnishings industry, Daughtridge is a tireless community volunteer and an advocate for several local causes focused on health, business and education. His staunch support for arthritis research and care led to a new clinic at Caldwell Memorial Hospital in Lenoir. It opened its doors in 2001 as the Alvin W. Daughtridge Arthritis Clinic. He has served on the boards of Caldwell Memorial Hospital, as well as Caldwell County’s Cancer Society, Red Cross and Board of Health.
In the business community, he is a past president of the Lenoir/Caldwell Chamber of Commerce and has received the Caldwell Chamber of Commerce Man of the Year Award, the Lenoir Jaycees Distinguished Service Award and the Non-Rotarian Award for Professional Excellence and High Ethical Standards. In January, he received the Caldwell County Economic Development Legacy Award for 50-plus years of service to business and educational endeavors.
Despite all these accomplishments, he may be best known for his dedication to the students of Caldwell County through a multitude of volunteer efforts, most notably as a long-time member of the Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute Board of Trustees and as the founding chairman of Communities in Schools (CIS) of Caldwell County in 1989. He continues serving on the CIS board today, and his decades of work for the organization led to a White House visit in 1991, the North Carolina Governor’s Volunteer of the Year Award and the H. Glen Williams Power of One Award from Communities in Schools of North Carolina.
In accepting his award from the Specialized Furniture Carriers at the group’s 2019 Logistics Conference in Wilmington, N.C., Daughtridge said his decades of volunteer service have been based on his belief that “when people park their egos at the door and engage in face-to-face dialogue, problems frequently become opportunities, and win-win solutions emerge.”