Editor's Take: It’s as if Eddie’s Still There

Like many entrepreneurs who launched catalog businesses in bygone eras, the late Eddie Smith, whom I had the pleasure of knowing during the ’90s and early 2000s, stuck firmly to a number of ironclad principles during his 50-plus years at the helm of the National Wholesale catalog.

Unlike many businessmen who sold out a life’s work to large conglomerates, brought on management “experts,” or even passed their beloved babies on to their own flesh and blood — as you’ll read in this month’s cover story — Smith’s baby continues to thrive, even since his passing in 2007.