‘A Gentleman and an Innovator’ – Pat Dempsey Passes On

Patrick J. Dempsey, 91, the co-founder and retired president of Dempsey Uniform & Linen Supply, passed away on Jan. 5 following an illness. Long active in industry circles, Dempsey served for several years on TRSA’s Board of Directors and on various committees. These and other contributions earned him TRSA’s Operator Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011.

Throughout his 60-plus years in the linen, uniform and facility services industry, Dempsey (pictured above/center) acted as an informal adviser to association leaders and to individual laundry operators from his company’s base in Jessup, PA.

“I think he had a good working relationship with everybody,” said Michael Potack, chair of Unitex Healthcare Laundry Services, Mt. Vernon, NY. “If he called you. You responded.” Similarly, if an industry colleague had a concern or question, he or she could call Dempsey and get an answer. And many did, Potack said. “He was knowledgeable, and he was a resource for the industry. If an industry issue came up, you could call him up and say, ‘What do you think? How does this work?’ He’d tell you, or he’d say ‘Let me get back to you.’”

Dempsey didn’t mince words on the subject of laundry operations, and he had a sly sense of humor as well, Potack said. Following a tour with Potack of a new plant in the early 2000s, Dempsey told the operator, “Congratulations, Mr. (name withheld), you just built a 1970s plant.’” The operator of that plant has since passed away.

While always candid in expressing his views, Potack and others noted that Dempsey never held grudges or spoke ill of an industry colleague. “What he did is he reached out across the industry,” Potack said. “He didn’t have a bad relationship with anybody.” Another longtime colleague, Donald Struminger, chair of Mohenis Services Inc., Petersburg, VA, said of Dempsey, “I never heard him say a cross word about anybody. He knew the business. He studied the business, and he knew it backwards and forwards and ran a good operation.” Charlie Brigham, a retired executive vice president of Coyne Textile Services, Syracuse, NY, added that “Pat never had an enemy or spoke a bad word about any person or company in the industry.”

With that said, Potack described Dempsey as driven by a keen interest in the industry and everyone in it. The two men met in the early ’70s as part a cost-group that included several independent laundries in the Northeast. Dempsey was the group’s de facto leader, Potack said. “People would just listen to what he said. And he knew a lot. I think that the thing that really drove him was the passion he had for the business. And the commitment he had to it. He wanted to make it better, not only for himself and his family, but for everybody.”

Dempsey and his brother Dick founded Dempsey Uniform & Linen Supply in 1958. Potack said Pat was the “inside” guy. He preferred working on equipment and systems, rather than going out to sell customers. Pat took a strategic approach to growing the company, which today has six locations in Pennsylvania, Baltimore and New Jersey. “He set goals in areas such as production and sales, and he challenged himself and others to meet them,” Potack said. “He was a good teacher in that way. He taught in an absolute way … ‘Say what you’re going to do and then go do it.’”

Another longtime industry colleague, Bill Mann, a former TRSA director of industry affairs and a one-time chemical sales representative to Dempsey Uniform, noted that “Pat was probably the smartest person I have ever known.” While Pat wasn’t a “rocket scientist,” during his service in the U.S. Army in the 1950s he participated in a missile program led by Wernher von Braun, a prominent nuclear physicist.

Throughout Pat’s career in the linen, uniform and facility services business, he had pursued innovations aimed at advancing the fortunes of both his company and the industry at large. Struminger noted that Dempsey was one of several operators in the 1960s who aided TRSA researchers in pioneering the development of 65-35 polyester/cotton blended fabrics. This innovation revolutionized the industrial uniform market, as well as the retail apparel business.

Known not only for his intelligence and networking skills but also for his preference for formal business attire, Struminger called Pat a “gentleman and an innovator.”

Pat backed various innovations early in their development. These included the addition of tunnel washers to his plants and computers to track production trends. The biennial Clean Shows offered Pat a veritable feast of new product technologies to review. He and his team took full advantage of these exhibitions. Following the 2011 Clean Show in Las Vegas, this correspondent asked Pat for a comment on how it went. The call turned into a 45-minute treatise on various innovations that he’d seen. “We had 10 attendees that were there for 2-4 days,” he said in the August 2011 Textile Rental magazine (renamed Textile Services in 2012). “They were all there to learn. It could have been a simple thing like a new soil bag that finally fit our criteria. They came back with strapping tape half the size of the other, and we use a lot of strapping tape. Or it was an ultrasound machine to get stains out. It’s been there before, but somebody spent the time this time to look and learn what it was, and we are going to give it a try.”

Potack noted one idea that Pat had for fleet operations that remains a work in progress today: Designing a workable fleet truck that allows route service representatives (RSRs) to access textile goods from compartments on the side similar to those common on soft drink trucks. “The first time I met him, he told me that we really should get something like soda trucks, and the drivers wouldn’t have to crawl inside the truck. They would have different bins and you could load the truck in order of deliveries. He never did it. But he was always thinking about different ways of using different things.”

Pat’s son, P.J., who now serves as president, along with his sister Kristin O’Donnell as vice president, said he still likes the idea of having trucks that RSRs can unload from the side with enhanced ease and safety. “I’m still committed to developing a delivery vehicle that doesn’t have steps, and we have several concept vehicles that we’ve developed with Utilimaster and Workhorse.” The work continues, but Pat’s vision will have to wait for another day.

The successful succession of P.J. and Kristin into top leadership posts was a nearly 20-year process. P.J. says he’s grateful for Pat’s support and guidance during those years, and for his commitment to the industry and TRSA. “Our dad was passionate about continuous learning, service to the textile rental industry and openly sharing his knowledge with anyone,” P.J. said. “Kristin and I have been overwhelmed by the number of people who have reached out to us – some industry legends – to tell us that they loved our father and credit him for much of their success.”

As for the association’s role in the company and its success, P.J. added, “Our dad understood that the true value of TRSA comes not just from participation but by leadership, so he encouraged generations of executives and managers at Dempsey to chair committees and contribute to the advancement of our industry. That legacy continues today with my service on the Board of Directors and our company being recognized with TRSAs 2025 Member Engagement Award at this year’s Legislative Conference.”

Kristin added that unlike some of his generation, Pat was always open to having women in leadership posts. “My dad made me feel like it was natural to bring your daughter into the business,” she said. “Early on, I made valuable business contacts. Dad taught me how to share with and learn from other leaders in the industry.”

Potack noted that family, faith and friends were key personal drivers for Pat, a devout Roman Catholic. “Family was more important to him than anything else,” Potack said of Pat, adding that, “He was a religious guy. That meant an awful lot to him. I think that his friendships meant a lot. He liked to be with people in the industry because he liked to talk about it, liked to learn about it.”

Pat also was proud of his Irish heritage and actively participated in St. Patrick’s Day parades and other activities celebrating his ancestral homeland.

Survivors include P.J. (Kristen) and Kristin (Thomas), plus four other children, 14 grandchildren and a brother. For details, including the Jan. 11 funeral service, click here. Pat’s wife Karen passed away in June 2024, and Pat’s brother Dick predeceased him in 2011.

(Others appearing in 2011 photo above [l/r] include: Woody Ostrow [TRSA chair, president/owner, Clean Care, Pittsburgh; the late Larry Steiner, former president/CEO AmeriPride Services Inc.; he passed away in 2017]).