Herring Fund Established, Memorial Set

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 6/5/2006 12:00:00 AM

New York —

A memorial service will be held Sept. 6 for longtime decorative fabrics executive Robert Herring, who died last month.

Herring, 78, retired as vp of F. Schumacher & Co in 1996, after a 28-year career with the company, starting as advertising manager in 1968. He began his career in the home furnishings industry with notable textile companies of the 1950s and '60s.

A longtime supporter of the home furnishings design community, he was the only man recognized as a “Friend of the Decorators Club,” a longtime women's group here. He was also the first male president of the International Furnishings & Design Association (IFDA) and was national president of IFDA's educational foundation. In 1994, he was presented with Interior Design magazine's Roscoe Award for distinguished service. He was the 1997 recipient of the ASID Metro Chapter's prestigious Elsie DeWolfe Award.

After his retirement from F. Schumacher, he had been a professor at the New York School of Interior Design (NYSID) for the past 10 years, and in 2005 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the school. Throughout his career and into retirement he was active in the interior design community with his mentoring of young designers.

He is survived by his son Robert Jr., three grandchildren and a great-grandson.

Gifts and memorials should go to the New York School of Interior Design, Robert Herring Fund, 170 East 70 Street, New York, N.Y. 10021. The memorial service will be at NYSID on Sept. 6 at 5 p.m.