Dave Thomas

No matter how successful Dave Thomas got, he frequently reminded his staff that he was simply a hamburger cook. The lovable founder and senior chairman of Wendy's International, Inc. looked more like someone's Dad than a corporate giant. Perhaps because he always put his family - and his efforts to help other children - before business.

Thomas, 69, lost a 10-year battle with liver cancer on January 8, 2002. Best known as the amiable television spokesperson for his Wendy's Hamburger chain, he appeared in more than 800 commercials since 1989. But the adoption community equally recognized him as a passionate advocate for children in need of permanent homes and loving families.

Dave Thomas never knew his biological parents. Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, he was adopted at 6 weeks of age by Rex and Auleva Thomas of Kalamazoo, Michigan. His adoptive mother passed away when he was only 5 years old, and the rest of his childhood was unstable, as his father moved him from state to state to find jobs during the Depression. Thomas has said he found comfort in going to restaurants, where he would watch big families happily dining together. At age 15, he dropped out of school to go into the restaurant business, determined he would have his own one day.

One of his earliest mentors was Colonel Harland Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken. In 1962, Thomas took over four failing KFC restaurants in Columbus, Ohio, revived them, and sold them back to KFC for $1.5 million in 1968. One year later, he opened his first Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburger restaurant in downtown Columbus, named after his second youngest daughter.

Wendy's has grown to more than 6,000 restaurants worldwide and is the third largest fast-food chain in America. In 2000, sales exceeded $8 billion.

But Thomas didn't measure success in dollars alone. He still had a dream to help foster children find caring, adoptive families. In 1990, he headed the White House Initiative on Adoption and began supporting adoption groups nationwide. Thomas started his own Foundation for Adoption in 1992, and over the next 10 years was able to see his dream fulfilled many times. Foundation Director Rita Soronen says her staff will continue to work to achieve Thomas' goals by raising awareness for the 134,000 foster children available for adoption, and by helping to make adoption easier and more affordable.

Thomas is survived by his wife of 47 years, Lorraine, five children and 16 grandchildren.