Alfred C. Fuller

<html> <head> <title>Alfred C. Fuller</title> <meta name="googlebot" content="noodp"> <meta name="robots" content="noodp"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" href="/silly-nndb-icon.png" /><style type="text/css">  </style></head> <body bgcolor=#ffffff> <center> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr><td valign=top><table width=550 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td bgcolor=white><table width="100%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" background="/nndb.gif"> <tr> <td rowspan="2" align="left" valign="top"><a href="http://www.nndb.com/"><img src="/title.gif" width="260" height="50" border=0 alt="NNDB"></a></td> <td><table width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6"> <tr align="center"> <td width="25%" nowrap>This is a beta version of NNDB</td> </tr> </table></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right" valign="middle"> <form action="http://search.nndb.com/search/nndb.cgi" method="get"> <input type="hidden" name="nndb" value="1"></input> Search: <select name="omenu"> <option value="unspecified" selected>All Names</option> <option value="living">Living people</option> <option value="dead">Dead people</option> <option value="bands">Band Names</option> <option value="books">Book Titles</option> <option value="movies">Movie Titles</option> <option value="fulltext">Full Text</option> </select> for <input name="query" value="" size=24 maxlength=96> <input type=submit value="Search"> </form></td> </tr> </table>        </td></tr><tr><td bgcolor=red height=2></td></tr><map name=fool><area coords="102,0,240,14" href="/people/291/000178754/bibliography/" alt="bibliography"></map><tr bgcolor=F0F0F0><td bgcolor=F0F0F0 style="padding: 0px 15px 15px 15px;"><img src="/red-profile-2.gif" align="right" height=15 width=240 border=0 usemap=#fool> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width=100%><tr><td bgcolor=F0F0F0>Alfred C. FullerAKA Alfred Carl FullerBorn: <a href="/lists/530/000106212/" class=proflink>13-Jan</a>-<a href="/lists/884/000105569/" class=proflink>1885</a> Birthplace: Welsford, NS, Canada Died: <a href="/lists/225/000106904/" class=proflink>4-Dec</a>-<a href="/lists/483/000106165/" class=proflink>1973</a> Location of death: <a href="/geo/630/000080390/" class=proflink>West Hartford, CT</a> Cause of death: unspecified Remains: Buried, Pleasant Valley Cemetery, Somerset, NS, Canada Gender: Male Religion: <a href="/lists/953/000110623/" class=proflink>Christian Science</a> Race or Ethnicity: White Sexual orientation: Straight Occupation: Business Party Affiliation: RepublicanNationality: United States Executive summary: Founder of Fuller Brush CompanyAlfred C. Fuller was born in Canada and raised in poverty, the eleventh of twelve children of farmers. He never attended high school, and came to America when he was 18 years of age. He worked as a gardener's assistant, train cleaner, delivery boy, and handyman before being hired to sell mops, washcloths, and brushes door-to-door in Boston. He was a good salesman but also a good listener, and he paid attention when would-be customers told him that the sample brushes in his case were poorly assembled and wrongly shaped for the tasks at hand. When Fuller relayed this feedback to his boss he was told to stop listening and sell more brushes. Instead the 21-year-old Fuller spent his life savings of $375 to buy brush-making tools, and went into business for himself in 1906. For the next few years Fuller assembled brushes every evening in the basement of his sister's home in Somerville, just north of Boston, and every morning he carried his case of samples all across the area, marking off neighborhoods on a map after talking to someone at every address. The company's name changed as Fuller relocated -- at various times he called it the Somerville Brush Company, the Boston Brush Company, the Capitol Brush Company, the Hartford Brush Company, and finally the Fuller Brush Company, but every brush always came with a lifetime guarantee. Three years after assembling his first brush, Fuller's sales justified hiring a second salesman in addition to himself, but Fuller never hired salesmen. His sales staff (always men, until the late 1940s) were never employees, but always private contractors who bought brushes and other products at a 30% discount off the retail price. Over subsequent decades "the Fuller Brush man" became an American icon, as tens of thousands of men knocked on millions of doors. In 1919 sales exceeded $1M annually, and by the time Fuller retired in 1968 annual sales were above $100M. Ubiquitous chain stores and suburban sprawl have made the door-to-door sales model almost obsolete, but the Fuller Brush Company still sells cleaning equipment and supplies on the web and via home-based sales staff. Father: Leander Joseph Fuller (farmer) Mother: Phoebe Collins Fuller (farmer, b. 1845) Sister: Annie Fuller Gleason Sister: Ashley Fuller Partridge Brother: Chester Fuller Brother: Douglkas Fuller Brother: Harvey Fuller Brother: Robert Fuller (d. 1933) Brother: William Fuller Wife: Evelyn Ells Fuller (b. circa 1887, m. 1908, div. 1930, two sons) Son: Howard Fuller (Fuller executive, b. 1913, d. 1959) Son: Avard Fuller (Fuller executive, b. 1916, d. 1992) Wife: Mary Primrose Pelton Fuller (b. 1903, m. 1932, d. 1997)     Fuller Brush Co. Founder, President, & Treasurer (1906-43)     Fuller Brush Co. Chairman (1943-68)     <a href="/event/582/000051429/">Naturalized US Citizen</a> 1905     <a href="/lists/846/000082600/">Canadian Ancestry</a>     <a href="/lists/516/000044384/">English Ancestry</a> Author of books: A Foot in the Door (<tt>1960</tt>, memoir, with Hartzell Spence) Do you know something we don't? <a href="http://commentary.nndb.com/submit/feedback/?id=178754" rel="nofollow">Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile</a> Copyright ©2019 Soylent Communications </td></tr></table> </td></tr> </table> </td> <td width=180 align="center" valign="top" style="padding: 0px 0px 8px 25px;"></td></tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>

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Alfred C. Fuller