ALEXANDRIA, Va., October 7, 2013—Richard J. L. Senior, chairman and CEO, Morgan Services, Chicago, has received the 2013 TRSA Operator Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his exceptional personal service to the textile services industry and TRSA.
Presented with the accolade at TRSA’s Annual Conference Sept. 24 in Sonoma, CA, Senior has served as Morgan’s CEO since 1974, when he joined the company. Married to Diana Morgan (a fourth-generation Chicagoan), their family owns the company 100 percent, with the fifth generation now working in the business.
With locations across the country, Morgan Services is known for implementing company-wide best practices from coast to coast while respecting that each of its outposts operates in its own market with its own customers and that local management is key to ensuring local needs are met.
Senior is a former TRSA chairman, serving in that post from 1983-85. He also held that position for another national organization, the Uniform and Textile Service Association (2002-04), which blended with TRSA in 2008. He was the only person ever elected to the top spot of both groups.
“If TRSA has benefited from my involvement it has truly been a long standing mutually beneficial relationship,” Senior said, recalling that he attended his first TRSA convention in 1974.
In presenting the award in Sonoma, current TRSA Chair Jim Doro, Doritex Corp., Alden, NY, observed that Senior took Morgan’s helm at the age of 33 as the industry was facing challenges from inflation and anti-trust enforcement to technology enabling customers to cost-effectively install on-premise laundries. “Despite these challenges, he took Morgan to levels of quality, reliability and response that were recognized world-wide,” Doro said.
Senior instituted policies that changed conventional wisdom from “customer first” to “Morgan employee or Member first,” inspiring exceptional customer service by Morgan Members. Doro described him as “empathetic, able, insightful, forthright and ethical” and credited him for laying the groundwork for the blending of the organizations.
