Ex-TRSA Leader, a Fierce Member Advocate, Passes On
Leslie “Buddy” Spero, a former top elected leader of TRSA, recently passed away at the age of 92, according to family members. He served as president of TRSA from 1981-’82, when he was also the owner/operator of United Service Co., a Youngstown, OH-based food and beverage (F&B) commercial laundry. The business was sold later in the 1980s and Spero had retired and was living in Palm Beach, FL, for several years.
He ascended to TRSA’s leadership amid a range of industry challenges that endure to this day. The income of many linen, uniform and facility services companies hadn’t kept pace with inflation and the economic downturn of the early ’80s, he said in a cover article in the June 1981 edition of Textile Rental. Spero called on members to take advantage of the resources available from TRSA to enhance their competitiveness. He also called on companies to contribute information on best practices that could strengthen the industry across the board.
“With the severe problems we are facing, it would behoove members to make greater use of association materials,” Spero said in the article. “We have a tremendous amount of knowledge not being utilized, and I want to see more of this being expanded into membership use. The simple truth is this: So many of the things that are presently taken for granted are simply not going to be valid in the future.”
Spero’s company was founded in 1906 by his immigrant father, Harry, who had arrived in the United States the previous year. Like many pioneering laundry operators of that era, Harry began peddling towels from the back of a horse and buggy. His son, universally known as Buddy, grew up in the “dynamic, entrepreneurial atmosphere” of the company originally known as the Youngstown Towel and Supply Co. Before joining the business full-time in 1948, Buddy served as a reserve U.S. Naval officer during World War II and attended the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Buddy graduated Summa Cum Laude from UCLA and brought a modern managerial style that helped the business expand into surrounding areas of Northeast Ohio and neighboring states, such as Pennsylvania.
Steve Fellman, TRSA’s longtime general counsel, recalled working with Buddy as chairman, and noted that his company was an early entrant as a laundry that provided paper products to restaurant customers. “Buddy was an excellent president of TRSA and actively promoted the industry,” Fellman said. “His company had an interesting twist. His dad had a friend who opened a fast-food restaurant and requested that Youngstown (Towel) provide the restaurant with paper napkins and other paper products. Buddy was hesitant to go into the paper products business but his father convinced him to do it, and stay in the business. The restaurant evolved into the Arby’s restaurant chain and Youngstown became a major supplier of paper goods and other products to the entire chain.”
While details on this business relationship are limited, Buddy’s profile article made clear that product diversification was critical to the United Service Co.’s competitiveness. Buddy felt the most effective way to run the business was to have separate operations for reusable and disposable products. To do that, he set up separate entities, United Service Co. (UNSCO) and United Paper Service Co (UPSCO) to service both sets of customers. “UPSCO today operates on a completely independent basis, with its own sales and general management force,” Buddy said. “We share the same EDP computer operation, the same financial staff and board of directors. But we otherwise are dealing with two extremely contrasting businesses with completely different sets of problems.”
Beyond his work in the F&B laundry business, Buddy was extremely active in civic affairs in Ohio and later in Florida. The Youngstown-area charities he supported included service as president of the Child Guidance Center, president of the Jewish Federation and as a board member of the United Way, among others.
After moving to Palm Beach, Buddy contributed to an array of organizations, including service as chairman of the American Lung Association, as well as volunteer work with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the Jewish Guild for the Blind and the American Red Cross, among others.
He was an avid golfer, tennis player, photographer and boating enthusiast as well. In 1981, he inducted as a member of Mensa International, a society for people who have an intelligence quotient (IQ) score that ranks them in the 98th percentile or higher.
Survivors include his wife Patricia (also known as “Patsy”); a son, Rand (Barbara); a daughter, Laurie; two step-daughters, Jennifer Gofman (Slavik) and Stephanie Eisler (Barry); plus five grandchildren: Emma, Danny, Zoe, Cooper and Harper.