“Today, we celebrate the life of a man who loved God, who knew God and who served God. Together, they did great things.” — Melvin Blackaby, senior pastor at First Baptist Church Jonesboro
“He was committed to the chicken business, but even more committed to doing God’s business.” — Andrew T. Cathy, grandson and vice president and chief people officer for Chick-fil-A.
“You can’t take yourself too seriously … take what you do very seriously.” — Andrew T. Cathy, grandson and vice president and chief people officer for Chick-fil-A, on advice his grandfather gave him.
“Truett was a much better preacher than I. If you want to hear and see a good sermon, just look at his life.” — Charles Carter, pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church Jonesboro and Cathy’s best friend.
“He never stopped dreaming.” — Charles Carter, pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church Jonesboro and Cathy’s best friend.
“He was a man of average physical size, but the size of the inner man was immeasurable. Just when I thought I had him figured out, there was another surprise.” — Charles Carter, pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church Jonesboro and Cathy’s best friend.
“He kept his priorities in the right order: God, family, business, church.” — Charles Carter, pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church Jonesboro and Cathy’s best friend.
“He didn’t care too much for academics, but work was right up Truett’s alley.” — Robert Skelton, former senior director of the WinShape Foundation’s students and international division.
“Truett, if he were sitting here, would love to talk to every one of you. To Chick-fil-A colleagues, he would say, ‘Enough is enough, it’s time to get back to work.’” — Woody Faulk, vice president of innovation and design for Chick-fil-A.
Upon seeing Truett Cathy in the woods on Valentine’s Day evening, Woody Faulk, vice president of innovation and design for Chick-fil-A, asked what he was doing: “I’m picking flowers for Jeanette. Why don’t you help me instead of just standing there?” Faulk said Cathy told him. “Don’t you know how much florists charge on Valentine’s Day?”
“I know what dad says when he hits his finger with a hammer. Can you keep a secret? I can, too. He says, ‘Kentucky Fried Chicken.’” — Bubba Cathy, Truett’s son and senior vice president of Chick-fil-A, Inc.
“He was constantly giving words of encouragement and little notes I’ll treasure forever.” — Dan Cathy, Truett’s son and the chairman, president and CEO of Chick-fil-A.
“For 61 years, he was my dad. He taught me how to tie my shoes, how to drive a tractor and how to treat a lady.” — Dan Cathy, Truett’s son and the chairman, president and CEO of Chick-fil-A.
“I will proudly live in the shadow of his legacy for the rest of my life.” — Dan Cathy, Truett’s son and the chairman, president and CEO of Chick-fil-A.
Jeannette Cathy reached into the church aisle to touch her husband’s stainless steel casket as it passed. Then she followed him out of First Baptist Church in Jonesboro, where more than 2,000 people had celebrated the life of the founder of Chick-fil-A.
In songs and stories, S. Truett Cathy, who died earlier this week at 93, was remembered as genial, generous, wise and religious, a man who touched the lives of nearly everyone he met. His two-hour funeral featured the music he loved, but could not play — his son Dan, now Chick-fil-A’s leader, joked that a violin instructor quit on his father after just three lessons.
“My dad lived a life of contradictions,” said Dan Cathy. “He started up in poverty. He loved to tell the joke that all he had to play with was a loose tooth. And, you know the punchline — it wasn’t his, it was his brother’s. Somehow, he ended up on the Forbes’ list.”
Cathy didn’t finish college, but received 17 honorary doctoral degrees from universities. He was a millionaire many times over, but would still go from rental car counter to rental car counter, searching for the best deal. And he lived in the same modest house for 60 years, but had a 200-car garage built for his massive collection of cars.
He loved to prank his friends, and grandson Andrew T. Cathy remembered him pulling down a friend’s shorts during a run on the beach. The elder Cathy’s funeral was a celebration of not just the business icon, but the person, and was full of applause and laughter.
“He grew old in years, but was forever a kid at heart,” Dan Cathy said.
Truett Cathy was famously pious, and nearly every friend and family member who spoke mentioned some way in which Cathy had helped solidify their own faith. Woody Faulk, Chick-fil-A’s vice president of innovation and design, held up an inscribed Bible Cathy gave him as a teenager. “It is a joy to be your Sunday School teacher and friend,” the inscription says.
“You taught me to choose wisely,” Faulk said. “Parts of you will remain alive with all of us.”
After the service, Amy Cunningham pulled a picture out of her purse. It was Cathy in a rocking chair, her on his lap.
Her mother, Rosemary Nelson, had a stack of similar photos that showed Cathy with some of the 45 children she and her husband Rob raised as part of Cathy’s WinShape foster children program.
“He loved to rock us to sleep,” Cunningham said. “He always made everyone in the room feel like his favorite.”
Cunningham came from Mississippi to celebrate the life of Cathy, who found her her “forever family.” Her brother, Ryan Nelson, remembered a time when Cathy got former president Jimmy Carter on his boxy carphone, just to have him say hi to the children he was driving with. And Hal King, a former Sunday School student and now the lead of public health and safety at Chick-fil-A, recalled a time when a pajama-clad Cathy knocked on his hotel door during a conference, ready to help him pray about a possible career change.
“He laid foundations for us as children to protect us,” King said. “He took the golden rule and made a business out of it. We’re blessed that we were part of his life.”
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