Former B.B. Walker CEO dies at 62
By J.D. Walker
Staff Writer, The Courier-Tribune
ASHEBORO - Friends will remember a local industrialist, who died unexpectedly
Tuesday, for his love of golf and his work in the business and civic community.
Kent Anderson, 62, former president and CEO of B.B. Walker Shoe Co.,
died from a massive heart attack early Tuesday, said friends.
Breck Richardson, a close friend and golfing buddy, said Anderson had
complained in recent days about on-going indigestion. However, Richardson
said he was unaware that Anderson had any history of heart disease.
Richardson said Anderson will be remembered as a significant power behind
the local Boy Scout golf tournament which raised money for the local Boy
Scout council.
"No one has ever done as well with it as he did," said Richardson.
Richardson said Anderson will be dearly missed by family and friends,
especially those who regularly enjoyed the golf outings that Anderson coordinated
in the spring and fall. Included in Anderson's close group of 25-30 golf
friends were other Randolph County notables like Richardson, former Asheboro
mayor Joe Trogdon, former B.B. Walker Co. peer Bob Donnell and retired dentist
Dr. Jack Atwater.
Anderson was the last CEO of B.B. Walker Shoe Co. The company was liquidated
through bankruptcy in 2002.
The B.B. Walker Co. was a local success story as the manufacturer of
work and dress boots. Company founder Bartlett Burkhead "B.B."
Walker started the business in 1947.
Over the next two dec-ades, the company spawned Lyon-Shaw Inc. in Salisbury,
a manufacturer of wrought iron furniture, metal lamps and ceramic lamps
(now an outdoor metal furniture manufacturer), Harrelson Rubber Co. (now
Oliver Rubber Co., owned by Cooper Tire and Rubber) and Dick Weeks Construction
Co. (bought by Progress Energy in 1999).
Friends said despite Anderson's best efforts to keep the company going,
B.B. Walker Co. eventually fell victim to cheap imports and global competition.
Jim Culberson Jr., former president and CEO of First National Bank, said
Anderson had an uphill fight when he took over the company roughly 15-20
years ago. Culberson remembers that period as the time when the industry
first began to feel the impact of a flood of cheap foreign shoe imports.
"He kept that company afloat as long as he possibly could,"
said George Gusler, vice president of the Asheboro-Randolph Chamber of Commerce.
"He will be sorely missed, not only by his friends and family, but
by the community."
Copyright 2002, Stephens Media Group
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