ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The Textile Rental Services Association (TRSA) recently honored Michael R. Potack and John Schultz with Lifetime Achievement awards at its annual conference in Las Vegas.
Potack, owner of Unitex Textile Rental Services, Mount Vernon, N.Y., received what TRSA calls its “highest honor,” the Operator Lifetime Achievement Award.
Potack is a past TRSA chairman, treasurer and director. He was recognized for his role in fostering the development of TRSA’s Hygienically Clean certification, as well as its Laundry Environmental Stewardship Program (LaundryESP). His other accomplishments include adding the former Uniform & Textile Service Association membership to TRSA and serving on the Healthcare and Government Relations committees.
Potack has been Unitex’s top executive for nearly 50 years. The company has grown from a single operation in Brooklyn to a chain with locations in nearby Northeastern states.
“No other TRSA member has ever given more of himself to the organization,” Patrick J. Dempsey, Dempsey Uniform & Linen, said while introducing Potack at the awards ceremony. “He is respected as a great strategist and implementer of new ideas and very generous with his time and knowledge in helping others in the industry improve their business and recognize new opportunities.”
Schultz, who works for Ecolab’s Textile Care Division, received the association’s Maglin Biggie Lifetime Achievement Award for Associates. Schultz is a senior manager for Ecolab’s WEW Solutions unit, which handles products related to water, energy recovery and wastewater solutions.
He has been a TRSA Environmental Committee member since 1990, and was involved in helping the industry avoid additional federal regulation of industrial laundry wastewater discharges by the Environmental Protection Agency, TRSA says. He’s a graduate of the association’s Production Management Institute (PMI) and has served as an instructor in the program. He has also presented at TRSA’s technical and operations summits.
The award recognizes Schultz for his “constant communication with textile services customers” and his “years of contributions to improving the association and textile services business without regard to personal or individual corporate gain as a supplier to the industry,” TRSA says.
The award is named for the late Rudolph A. “Rudy” Maglin and James Biggie. Maglin completed his career with Dober Group, the predecessor of Spindle Technologies, and Biggie first served at Coyne Textile Services before joining The Penn Cos., according to TRSA.
“Receiving the TRSA Maglin Biggie Associate Lifetime Achievement Award was quite a surprise and honor as well,” Schultz tells American Laundry News. “I had the opportunity to work with a very respected man, Rudy Maglin, [whom] the award is named after.”
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