Thayer Coggin, Innovator in NC Furniture Industry, Dies

Thayer Coggin, an innovator in North Carolina's furniture industry whose career spanned more than half a century, has died. Coggin, the founder of a contemporary furniture company that bears his name, died Thursday after a long illness. He was 80. "He was a mentor to me and others," said Paul Brayton, of Paul Brayton Designs. "He was a legend in the industry. When I came here 35 years ago, I was told I had to meet him." Coggin founded his company in 1953. It was Coggin's early association with designer Milo Braughman that gave the company its success as one of the first to produce contemporary residential and office furniture. "My mother told me it was divine intervention that we got together," Braughman said. "We had similar views and visions. And he allowed me to go ahead with a design, knowing it might not sell. He did not always play it safe." And that created a niche in the furniture market, said Richard Bennington, director of home furnishing programs at High Point University. "In the 1950s, he had what was new and fresh," Bennington said. "The company stayed with it and strengthened it. Thayer Coggin was one of the first companies to go for an image in the market place."