Posted June 5, 2017

 

ARLINGTON, Va. – Paul T. O’Day, longtime president and counsel of the American Fiber Manufacturers Association (AFMA), died peacefully at his home with his family by his side on June 1, 2017. He was 82.

 

O’Day was appointed president of the AFMA in 1984. He was fiercely dedicated to the industry he loved for 33 years, according to a statement by the association. The AFMA called him “a true gentleman and powerful intellect” who led the association “with a sophisticated wit and charm.”

 

The AFMA is the U.S. national trade association representing the interests of America’s manufactured fiber producers and the official source for U.S. fiber industry data. The AFMA board established a scholarship in 2014 in honor of O’Day.

 

“This is a very difficult day for the entire AFMA family. Paul was not only a great man, but he was also a friend and confidante to so many of us in the industry,” said Mark J. Ruday, current AFMA chairman. “As he would have wanted, Paul’s legacy and dedication to the fiber industry will live on through the continuation of the Paul T. O’Day Scholarship fund, which was set up three years ago to help students pursue a degree in a fiber-related field.”

 

William V. McCrary Jr., chairman of the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO), called it a “sad day for the U.S. textile industry.”

 

“I’ve been proud to call a Paul friend for decades and worked with him closely during my two-year stint as AFMA chairman,” said McCrary, chairman and CEO of William Barnet & Son, LLC, a synthetic fiber/yarn/polymer firm with plants and/or offices in the Americas, Europe, and Asia headquartered in Spartanburg, South Carolina. “He was a strategic thinker who safeguarded the U.S. fiber industry’s interests in Washington during very tumultuous times. Many important policy issues arose during Paul’s three decades as president at AFMA that would not have been resolved favorably without his wise counsel and resolute, steady leadership.”

 

NCTO President and CEO Auggie Tantillo, who worked directly with O’Day since the early 1980s said, “For 33 years, Paul O’Day exhibited an unmatched dedication to AFMA and the industry he loved.”

 

“Paul represented his constituency with a style and level of decorum virtually unheard of in the current Washington environment,” he continued. “Famously courteous and humble, Paul won heated policy debates through the power of his extraordinary intellect, his expansive institutional knowledge and his total command of the subject matter at hand. Completely secure in his role and the critical contribution he made to every project, Paul was always quick to defer credit and to shower praise on his colleagues.”

 

“Fiber manufacturers and the U.S. textile industry lost a priceless asset who will be greatly and deservedly missed,” Tantillo added.

 

Rich contributions on behalf of the industry

 

O’Day’s government service included appointments as deputy assistant secretary of Commerce for Trade Development, executive assistant to the Secretary, and other senior positions in the Commerce Department and the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

 

He led the initial implementation of the multi-fiber arrangement (MFA), the international agreement that imposed quotas or quantity limits on Textiles and Clothing from Developing Countries, in force from 1974 until 2004. He played a key role in the creation of OTEXA, the Office of Textiles and Apparel, to monitor the MFA agreements, and the creation of the Committee for Implementation of Textile Agreements, comprised of representatives from Commerce, USTR and OTEXA to insure administration and compliance of Bilateral Agreements.

 

O’Day was key negotiator on bilateral agreements with developing countries under the auspices of the MFA, ensuring realistic quota outcomes on sensitive items and was lead negotiator for fibers and yarns in the Uruguay Round, the most ambitious multilateral trade agreement in history, calling for elimination of all textile and apparel quotas by January 2004.

 

He was a lead negotiator in textiles and clothing in the NAFTA agreement, the first Free Trade Agreement with phase out of tariffs among partners, and was responsible for establishing a yarn-forward rule of origin, which became standard for all subsequent FTA agreements.

 

After a 50 percent plus decline in fiber and filament yarn production volume resulting from MFA phase out, O’Day redirected the mission of AFMA and added an associate member base of organizations with a significant commercial relationship to the sector and a new High Performance Fiber Council. AFMA membership grew from 15 members in early 1980s to 43 in 2017.

 

To read the full obituary, please click here.

 

Sources: AFMA, NCTO and The Washington Post