Davre Davidson & William Fishman - pioneer food vendors

The key to success for almost any noteworthy duo is the ability of the two people to complement each other. That certainly was true for William Fishman and Davre Davidson, two foodservice entrepreneurs who in 1959 combined their assets and talents to create what has become one of the largest service management companies in the world -- Aramark.

"I think they will be remembered most for the fact that they built a wonderfully balanced organization," said John Farquharson, chairman, Aramark Global Food Services. "They created a company that is so diverse, a true service company."

Both men had similar beginnings in different parts of the country.

In 1936, in Los Angeles, Davre Davidson and his brother, Henry, founded vending company known as Davidson Brothers. Davidson operated out of his 1932 Dodge, and his first week's receipts were less than $8. Nevertheless, he was sure that vending machines would fill a need for businesses.

A few years later, in Chicago, Bill Fishman did the same thing, creating the Automatic Merchandising Co.

Each did well on his own, and in 1959 they decided the two companies would be even stronger together. They merged to form Automatic Retailers of America, which was, of course, larger but still a vending company.

The big break, according to Aramark executive vice president and general counsel Mark Spector, came in 1960 when ARA bought Slater Foodservice, a manual foodservice contractor in Philadelphia. Slater gave ARA the diversification the company needed to grow. And grow it did.

In 1965 the company branched out to recreational foodservice at Atlanta's Fulton County Stadium. In 1968 ARA bought District News, a magazine and book publisher that took ARA out of pure foodservice and into the world of customer service. The following year the company name was changed to ARA Services.

Other successful gambles followed: a joint venture in Japan in 1976; the creation of ARATEX uniform' services division in 1977; the acquisition of National Child Care Centers Inc. in 1980.

Spector contrasted the two men's styles.

"They were not similar at all," Spector said. "In my opinion, that was one of the reasons for our tremendous success in the early years. Bill was the exciting, risk-taking man. He worked by instinct and feeling.

"Davre was much more conservative, more financially oriented. He'd study the return on investments, performance reports; he'd agonize over a transaction."

Farquharson, who came to ARA in the merger with Slater in 1960, had fond memories of both men.

"Bill was a big man with a world of energy," Farquharson recalled. "He would often call me in the middle of the night with ideas. My phone would ring at 3 a.m., and it would be Bill, and he'd say, `I want to go visit Vance Hart,' who managed a lot of our business in the Cincinnati area. So, I'd meet Bill at 4 a.m. at the company plane, and he'd have breakfast with Vance Hart."

Farquharson painted a picture of Davidson as a hard-shelled businessman with a warm heart. On one occasion when the two men were traveling on business, Farquharson got a call that he had to attend to an emergency at home. He debated the wisdom of leaving.

"Davre sat me down and lectured me for a half-hour on how family was the most important part of your life," he said. "He told me that it was important to balance family and career, but family had to come first."

To Joseph Neubauer, who became chairman of ARA Services in 1984, Davidson was the visionary and strategist, while Fishman was the people person. However, that didn't mean that Fishman didn't have vision and goals.

When he became chairman in 1977, Fishman stated that he wanted to double the size of the company before he retired. He succeeded, taking the company from $1.5 billion in revenue in 1977 to nearly $3 billion by 1984, when he stepped down.

"Bill really understood that people wanted to be recognized, to be part of a group, and he knew how to motivate them to give the best service," Neubauer said of the man who hired him in 1979. "Bill had a driver, and sometimes he'd sit in the front seat with the driver to talk with him. Sometimes, he'd drive the car and let the driver relax. He appealed to people on an emotional level."

Davidson, by contrast, was more logic-driven, calm and rational. When Neubauer was named chief executive and wondered aloud if he was up to the task, Davidson reminded him that John F. Kennedy was younger than Neubauer when he became president.

"That put things in perspective and made things easier to deal with," he said.

Dray Dayton, who worked for Food and Refreshment Services in Tennessee until it was bought by ARA, said both men were hard-working, compassionate men with high ethical standards.

"Bill was a man who treated all people with respect, very much in tune with employees," said Dayton, who became assistant to the president -- Fishman -- in 1964. "Davre was active with the Boy Scouts in the Los Angeles area, and he touched my heart when he offered to donate ARA stock in my name to my church."

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