The AP reports:
Chick-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy died early Monday at 93. The billionaire rose from poverty by building a privately held restaurant chain that famously closes every Sunday but drew unwanted attention for the Cathy family’s opposition to gay marriage. Read more.
What a remarkable figure! Cathy’s productive life is a testament to a man who committed his life endeavors to the Biblical God. His business, a model-business, offers the greatest service with the greatest food; the perfect recipe for one of the most popular franchises in the world. Further, they honored the Lord’s Day in a profoundly un-American way. They emphasized that a successful business is a business given over to the Lord of the Sabbath.
Cathy’s contributions to society were more than simply delicious chicken sandwiches.
Cathy dedicated his time and resources to many philanthropic causes, focusing on those related to the welfare of needy children. He reportedly welcomed homeless children into his home and taught in Sunday school sessions. He fostered children for over 30 years, and took in nearly 200 foster children through WinShape Homes. WinShape Homes is a long-term foster care program that includes 11 foster homes throughout Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee.
In 1984, Cathy established the WinShape Foundation, named for its mission to shape winners. WinShape Foundation consists of WinShape Homes, WinShape RetreatSM, WinShape MarriageSM, WinShape Camps, WinShape, College Program, WinShape Wilderness and WinShape International. In 2010, the foundation provided roughly $18 million to fund the development of foster homes and summer camp. Past donations from the WinShape Foundation include the funding of several college scholarships and marriage counseling programs. The foundation has awarded nearly 820 students of Berry College with scholarships of up to $32,000.
WinShape has donated, since 2003, $5 million to groups including the Marriage & Family Foundation, Exodus International and the Family Research Council (the latter two in the amount of $1,000 each), which strongly oppose same-sex marriage and other initiatives supported by the LGBT community.
In 2008, Cathy’s WinShape Foundation won the William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic leadership which awarded it $250,000 towards future philanthropy, as a result of its contributions to society. The prize was created to further ideals such as personal responsibility, resourcefulness, volunteerism, scholarship, individual freedom, faith in God, and helping people who help themselves. It honors living philanthropists who have shown exemplary leadership through their charitable giving, highlights the power of philanthropy to achieve positive change, and seeks to inspire others to support charities that achieve genuine results.
In recognition of his philanthropic efforts through WinShape, Cathy received the Children’s Champion Award for Family and Community from the charitable organization Children’s Hunger Fund in 2011.
Cathy also had a Leadership Scholarship program for Chick-fil-A restaurant employees, which has awarded more than $23 million in $1,000 scholarships in the past 35 years. a
Whatever Chick-fil-A you may visit, workers are trained to politely respond to your requests with “My pleasure.” Cathy lived his life for the pleasure of God and it was that pleasure that led him to contribute to the lives of so many. He once remarked that “we are created for the purpose of giving.” His long life was a reflection of that glorious purpose.
Here is a video of this remarkable man:
<>
- See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._Truett_Cathy (back)
