Night and Day, by Donald Maharam
Donald Maharam (1931–2022) was a textile engineer who pioneered performance-measured textiles for commercial interiors. He served as Maharam’s third-generation CEO, working with the company from 1952 until 2000. Night and Day by Donald Maharam is an excerpt from Maharam Stories (Skira Rizzoli, 2015). To put time and money into perspective, I graduated from college in 1952 and my starting salary in the family business, lorded over by my father and his three brothers, was $50.00/week, netting a very impressive $37.12 after taxes. With nothing in the form of organized guidance, I was told to “start learning the business and all the departments.” At that time, we sold costume and scenic fabrics for the theater trade, along with all the display paraphernalia required for seasonal window displays in retail stores. In addition to some rather mundane office duties, I was the assigned recipient of incoming calls from our smaller accounts, thus my inheritance of Jack …
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