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Martin Foil had such a relatable way about him. He was someone that you met and felt like he had known you forever. He was one of those larger-than-life personalities that you never forget – a true character – and was always ready with a great story to share!

Martin utilized his platform to make a significant impact beyond the textiles business to the causes and community that he loved. He was a brilliant man and his creative passion at Tuscarora was contagious. He found such an interesting balance of respecting the heritage of things while driving innovation in all he did. He had a very different way of looking at things … and people, and I think that’s what made him so special and successful. Martin will be missed by many. He certainly left a legacy.

Alaine Bollinger

Principal

BD&H Marketing

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My first meeting with Martin was back when Courtaulds was still supplying the market around 2000. We entered a conference with the entire Tuscarora team and Martin seated at the head of the table with his feet propped up on the table. We barely got through introductions before Martin started reviewing all our shortcomings, from his viewpoint, over the past 20 years or so. After about 20 minutes of a non-stop pounding he asked if I thought we had improved enough to supply Tuscarora IF he placed an order.

I told him “no … we wouldn’t sell him even if he asked.” The room then got quiet. At this point he took his feet off the table and looked at me and said, “Say what?” I then told him the way he described us “even if we loaded the truck right, we would probably wreck it leaving the plant.” Luckily, he smiled and started laughing and told me “well maybe you’re not ALL that bad.”

From that point on it was a very productive meeting on fibers, products, developments, etc., but only because we pushed back on him.

He was a very smart man and understood fibers and their various characteristics to create unique yarns for the market. But every meeting started with Martin challenging you, both professionally and personally, until you verbally had to punch back – then he would laugh and it was down to business.

I’ll never forget launching a fiber variant named Edelweiss and at the first mention of the name in our meeting, Martin stands up and starts singing Edelweiss from the Sound of Music at the top of his lungs. He was definitely a unique character!

David Adkins

Commercial Manager – Nonwovens Americas/Textiles North & Central America

Lenzing AG

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“I am saddened to hear the news about my old friend Martin passing. I will always remember those spirited chats we would have and how fearless he was to try something that others would consider impossible in order to make a yarn that could be called unique and original.

Being an old Southern gentleman, Martin would always start our meetings by offering me my favorite Lance Captain’s Wafers with a cold Cheerwine or Sundrop and we would catch up on our personal lives before we got down to business. The meetings would always end with a trip next door to see what was new in the “Magic Kingdom.” He loved to show off the Magic Kingdom to my designers and developers and he would let them try to build their own yarn from scratch.

Many of them still proudly display the socks knitted from those yarns at their desks. From those amazing Gouldian finches in the lobby to all the plaques thanking Martin for his help and support adorning the walls of the building, it was always a pleasure to visit him at the office in Mount Pleasant. They certainly don’t make them like Martin anymore. He will be missed.”

Scott Wagner

Levi Strauss & Co.

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We are saddened to learn of Martin’s passing. He was a colorful, gruff, often demanding while at the same time charming, fascinating man. He had real passion for his work, his company, his industry, but mostly for his family.

My lasting memory of Martin will be how happy and entertaining he was at the Black and White Ball every year. May he rest in God’s everlasting peace.

Bill Coffey

Marketing executive

The Poole Company

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Martin was certainly a very successful business man in the textile business and thrived in every type of business cycle imaginable for all these many years.

Brokie Lineweaver

Unifi, Inc. (retired)

Remembrances posted on eTC's social media channels

Martin was one of the nicest men I ever met. Not only was he a leader in textiles but also a leader in his work with the National Brain Injury Foundation. Martin was a great Southern gentleman.

He once helped me make a 17-year-old’s dream come true when he was given eight months to live. Tuscarora’s sales office used to be at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. There was a young man who lived in my neighborhood in Kinston N.C., while I lived and worked there as general manager of Down East Fabrics. His dad was an engineer for Glen Raven. Stephen mowed my yard and was a senior in high school. He found out he had a cancerous, inoperable brain tumor.

I asked him if he could have anything what would it be. He was a diehard Jeff Gordon fan. He said he wanted a signed replica of the No. 24. So I called Martin and told him the story and asked if could help me. He said, “give me a couple days, we should be able to do better than that.” When he called me back he had arranged for Stephen to come to the Speedway and meet Jeff. Martin had hired a professional photographer to record this for Stephen.

Anyway, I took the family to the Speedway, and Jeff spent all morning with him and gave him a race suit, a helmet, a T-shirt and his special car – all signed. Jeff even got one of the Richard Petty Racing Experience drivers to take Stephen around the track at race speed in his No. 24. They put in another seat and even helped him in and out car – he was in wheelchair. It was the greatest day of his life.

Martin called the family every week, and so did Jeff, until Stephen passed away. The only catch to him and Jeff was doing they wanted to this with no publicity. They did it out of the goodness of their heart, not for praise. Martin could have just got him that signed car, but that was not Martin’s style. He was a kind and wonderful person under his sometimes outwardly gruff personality.

Richard Miller

Sales manager

Keer America Corporation

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Martin Foil was the leader of innovation who changed this industry. Many brands would not have such success if it were not for his creativity. I owe everything to Martin and count my blessings everyday. Loved him with all my heart.

Dee Dee Harris

National sales director, Development

Buhler Quality Yarns

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Wow, (Foil’s passing is) disheartening, especially when it was someone you saw everyday make that trek to the office. And, make no mistake about it, you always knew where he stood. I wish the Tuscarora legacy had continued on. RIP, Martin.

David Hankins

Regional sales engineer – After Sales

Rieter

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RIP, Martin He was great textile leader who I enjoyed working with! My thoughts and prayers are with his family!

Joel McIntyre

CEO, executive recruiter

SP Associaties

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I worked for Tuscarora for a short period of time and never heard a bad comment about Mr. Foil. His people thought a lot of him. He was one of the last textile patriarchs.

Michael Goodnight

Weave room management

JPS Composite Materials

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By far the best interview I have experienced in my entire career was with Mr. Foil. I enjoyed my short time with Tuscarora. RIP, Mr. Foil and thanks for the opportunity – you will never be forgotten.

Jeff Miller

Quality manager

Elite Comfort Solutions

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Awww … he was a proper, eccentric Southern gentleman. Flair and fire. A bit of culture has been lost.

Malinda Salter

Account executive

Hohenstein Institute of America

Posted August 9, 2018

Ten years ago, I had the chance to sit down and conduct an extensive interview with Martin Foil Jr., then chairman and longtime leader of Tuscarora Yarns, Mount Pleasant, N.C., for a lengthy feature story on the company in Southern Textile News.

It was one of the top three interviews I’ve ever done in more than two decades of textile industry reporting. I would put Foil right up their with Chuck Hayes (former chairman & CEO of Guilford Mills) and Jim Chesnutt (current chairman of National Spinning Co.) in terms of candor and advocacy for U.S. manufacturing.

Foil, who died last week at age 85, led Tuscarora for nearly 50 years and was involved in the company in some form or fashion since he was a pre-teen. With a booming voice and large of stature, he exuded an intimidating mien. But, sitting down with him, I quickly saw the man behind the imposing curtain. As I wrote after my interviews in 2008: “At first blush, Foil comes off as a gruff, no-nonsense, humorless man … with an opinion on everything. But beneath the surface, you’ll find in Foil an affable, erudite teddy bear with a bent for jest.”

Asked why he believed in maintaining a strong U.S. manufacturing base, he said: “That’s right here (tapping his heart).” Later, he expounded on his long-held belief in American manufacturing by telling a story of, when he was 13 years old, riding a train with his father up North to see a doctor.

“I looked out my window and we rolled through a town called Chester, Penn.,” he said, “and there was a building that was probably a warehouse near the tracks. It was an old red, weathered building. And it had a white sign on it that was also faded. It was outlined in white and it read, ‘What Chester Makes Makes Chester.’ That has always stayed in my mind.

“What it says is that if we’re going to continue to be a great nation, we’ve got to make things and we’ve got to sell things,” he continued. “We’ve got to be self-sufficient. Well, we’re fast becoming a service nation and that is very, very poor. We’ve got some of the brightest people in the world who work in America and their gifts are being outsourced to people who are taking advantage of us. And our so-called free trade policies have caused us unbelievable problems. And it’s not that free trade is bad. It’s just that our government is myopic and can’t discern the difference between free trade and fair trade.”

And, like Hayes and Chesnutt, Foil was never timid in letting policymakers, influencers and others know his thoughts, he told me then. “I have a meeting soon with the head of the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce and I’m going to blister him real good about manufacturing. I think our government, led by this president, has done a horrible job of protecting the American worker and the American people.”

Those are just snapshots that exemplify Foil’s decades-long leadership in the U.S. textile industry. His strong voice and tireless efforts made a difference in enabling the industry to survive extremely rough patches over the last quarter century.

Read the full interview ("A decade ago, Foil offered forthright, prophetic perspective on firm, industry") from 2008 here.

On this page, please read a few thoughts from some of those who knew him.

To read Foil’s obituary, please click here.