Mark Millican: He built more than chicken sandwiches

Published 11:05 pm Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Dinah Rowe didn’t know what to give S. Truett Cathy as a gift for speaking at the Chatsworth-Murray County Chamber of Commerce annual luncheon in 2002. After all, what do you give the guy who started Chick-fil-A and was worth around $1 billion at the time?

Then she learned Cathy was a Batman fan, and that he actually purchased the Batmobile from the movie “Return of Batman.”

“He was fantastic, a great speaker,” said Rowe, the president of the Chatsworth chamber. “The one joke I remember the most was, we were having chicken and steak for dinner, and he picked up his knife and said, ‘What’s this for? Chicken’s a finger food!’”

Rowe said she got on eBay and made her only purchase ever on the site — an original movie poster signed by the stars of “Return of Batman.” She had it framed and ready at the luncheon on Fort Mountain.

“When I unveiled it, I thought he was going to cry,” she remembers of the entrepreneur who came to town in his “cow” limousine. “He said, ‘I will hang this over the Batmobile.’”

Rowe related she was on a trip more than a year after Cathy’s visit to Cohutta Lodge and met a female Chick-fil-A executive while flying. She shared the Batman story with the exec, who then told her she had to visit the company’s offices in Atlanta — Cathy had the poster hanging in the entry foyer of their corporate headquarters.

When I was working at the Chatsworth newspaper I was privileged to hear and meet Cathy at that luncheon. He was 81 at the time, I believe, and with a polished delivery kept the crowd laughing — not out of respect for his position or age, but because he was truly funny.

My favorite Cathy book is “It’s Better to Build Boys than Mend Men.” It’s full of years of wisdom about appropriately handling young male charges, and Cathy admonishes men to take time to mentor boys in their neighborhoods and communities — and not just their own children — who may be growing up without a father.

And Truett Cathy lived it. He not only started camps and provided scholarships to young people, but also taught Sunday school to 13-year-olds for 50 years in the same church. Imagine that. He’s taught boys who became men and then taught their sons and grandsons and great-grandsons.

If nothing else, reward him posthumously for that.

His son Dan sparked a controversy in recent years when he spoke in support of traditional marriage — which appears to be politically incorrect in many circles — and was roundly trashed via mainstream opinion commenters and some social media users. But to many, it was unwarranted and agenda-driven criticism. Here’s a family who refuses to go public and sell stock since shareholders might demand the restaurant open on Sunday, and probably would not let the company be as generous with its millions and millions of dollars poured into charitable causes.

Chick-fil-A has one of the best slogans of all time: “We didn’t invent the chicken, just the chicken sandwich.” And the “Eat Mor Chikin” ad campaign has to be one of the most innovative and successful in history. I like that when you thank employees for handing over your order they don’t reply with “No problem” — a ubiquitous yet banal response — but “It’s my pleasure” along with a smile. If someone is pleased to serve me and my family and acts like it, I’m going back.

But more importantly, the company has also built character into thousands of young lives through camps and mentoring programs for needy children, and leadership and scholarship programs for their young employees. In the end, Truett Cathy and his family will be remembered for much more than inventing the chicken sandwich.  

Just ask those they’ve helped.