FILES OF JOHN M. TASSIE (President, Lenox, Incorporated),, 1946-1969

Summary: Selected files kept by John M. Tassie, a Lenox employee from 1942 until 1977, who served as general manager of the Lenoxite division (1943-1946), superintendent of china works (1946-1959), president and CEO of Lenox, Incorporated (1959-1976), chairman of the board of directors (until 1977) and chairman of the finance committee (until 1981). The documents relate to several subjects, including Tassie's election as president, construction and employee issues at the Pomona facility, the marketing of Japanese china, the American Fine China Guild, the introduction of a new dinnerware shape and a potential buyout by the Bangor Punta Corporation, as well as files on financial and export issues. Included are letters and memoranda, press releases, news clippings, trade publications, reports, proposals, minutes (of the American Fine China Guild) and several photographs.

Among the documents in this series are selected writings by Tassie, including an address before the New York Society of Security Analysts entitled "Growing Markets for Dinnerware and Crystal" (December 1967), the introduction for Modern Marketing Concepts: Their Application to the Gift Industry (February 1962), an article for The Gift and Art Buyer entitled "Gift Marketing Needs Modern Techniques!" (August 1961) and "Three Way Control for Low-Cost Operation" which appeared in Factory Management and Maintenance (December 1946).

Included among the export files is a February 13, 1964, letter from New Jersey Governor Richard J. Hughes congratulating Lenox on its first shipment of china exported to Japan.

The files on the Pomona facilities included several architectural drawings, consisting of renderings of the building and grounds, furniture plans, floor plans for the showroom, layout of the fire protection system (June 1952) and plans related to plant expansion, all of which have been removed to ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS.