Services are Thursday for Former Airstream Exec Parnell – RVBusiness – Breaking RV Industry News
Services are scheduled for Thursday (March 7) in Cincinnati, Ohio, for Tom Parnell, a retired Airstream Inc. sales executive who lived in Loveland, Ohio, and passed away Feb. 24 at the age of 81.
“I hired Tom in the 1980’s to serve as eastern North American Airstream sales manager,” said former Airstream Chairman Larry Huttle, who’s received a series of phone calls from U.S. dealers regarding Parnell’s passing, “He was the right person for the position at the time. Tom held over 45 years progressive experience in our industry. He was a consummate sales professional and is held in high esteem by the tenured employees of Airstream, dealers and competitors.
“His most responsive quality from all his stakeholders he touched was he earned their trust via honesty and integrity along with great industry knowledge,” said Huttle. “His judgement was keen.”
Huttle added that Parnell was a “a true genuine link between the company and dealers greatly needed “to restore Airstream to its rightful place in the American experience” at a difficult period of time for many of the tenured employees at Jackson Center, Ohio-based Airstream at the time of the Thor purchase from Beatrice Foods in 1980.
“Airstream exists today as a result of the early success of people like Tom and others at Airstream,” said Huttle. “(Co-founders) Wade (Thompson) and Peter (Orthwein) brought a lot of business acumen to the industry but were new to the RV sector at the time of their purchase of Airstream, Morgan Yacht, Long Bell Cabinets from Beatrice Foods in 1980.”
Visitation is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. to noon Thursday at the Good Shepherd Catholic Church, 8815 E. Kemper Rd. in Cincinnati. A “Mass of Christian Burial” is set for noon.
