Textile Distributors Association to fold  

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 11/15/2007 1:31:00 PM

New York – The Textile Distributors Association will close, as membership has declined from a peak of 365 to 50 today.

Some 25 members of the nearly 70-year-old group gathered at Sardi’s restaurant here earlier this month for a “preliminary wake,” according to Bruce Roberts, executive director of the association since 1990. The final meeting and holiday party will be held there on Dec. 11.

After a 90-day waiting period to determine that there is no outstanding debt, the TDA plans to donate about $30,000 to the Fashion Institute of Technology here to set up a scholarship in Roberts’ name. He serves on the board of the Educational Foundation of FIT and in June this year he and his wife Rita donated $75,000 to FIT for a room to be used as a space for small receptions.

Two members have volunteered to the scholarship fund on their own, each contributing the amount of their annual dues, and they encouraged other members to do the same.

Roberts’ involvement with TDA dates to 1955 when he joined the group while working for the fibers business of Eastman Chemical; he earlier was an executive at Springs.