How padded pews changed the family business

When a business is built on decades of tradition, changing with the times can be difficult. Necessary, but difficult.

Take, for example, the upholstered pew. In the mid-1960s, an upholstered or padded pew was a luxury. After all, classic benches withstood the test of time. Some had been around for centuries.

Then an upstart company in Virginia changed things.

“In the early days of the church furnishings business, all advertising was word of mouth,” says Pat Rugel, matriarch of the Rugel Church Furnishing family. “In fact, most everyone who sold pews were preachers.”

It makes sense. Most of the men we call preachers were of the Baptist faith. Baptists liked to move around, planting one church after another after another.

In those early days, a preacher in Ohio, another in Michigan and still another in South Carolina sold a lot of pews, especially the guy in South Carolina. “He sold more pews than anybody,” Pat said. Of course, he had a large church where he could show off his wares.

Then came that upstart.

“A company in Lynchburg, Virginia, started selling upholstered pews,” Pat says.

Keith Rugel, third generation carpenter and a renaissance man in his family business, saw the writing on the wall.

“He kept telling his father it was time to modernize, but Earl said it wouldn’t work,” Pat says.

Keith wanted to prove that upholstering pews would work. Using woodworking and upholstery tools he bought himself, Keith worked at night with another employee to come up with a process to upholster pews. It was revolutionary, and it worked.

“That process is still being used today,” Pat says.

Even with modernization the tradition of quality continues.