About Jack Bandy (1926-2020)

Benefactor of the Bandy Heritage Center, Jack Bandy was a native Daltonian with ancestral roots deeply imbedded in Northwest Georgia. His parents, B. J. and Dicksie Bandy, were community leaders who instilled in their son a strong entrepreneurial spirit together with an abiding appreciation for the area’s history. True to the family tradition, Jack made an indelible mark of his own within the business world and in community stewardship.

As a child, Bandy learned about the area’s Cherokee heritage and the tragic circumstances surrounding their forced removal. He also became aware of the Civil War’s impact on Northwest Georgia, where tangible remnants of that conflict remain today. As a young man, Bandy witnessed the transformation of a chenille bedspread cottage industry into the global center of modern-day carpet production. In adulthood, Jack helped lead that transformation by establishing Coronet Industries, among other interests.

“People in this area have said for a long time that there ought to be a place where the history of this region can be explored in great depth,” Bandy explained. “I see the Center providing museum space for exhibits, and I also see it as a place where historians can meet and do research in partnership with historical societies throughout Northwest Georgia and beyond.”

“As an entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist, Jack’s impact on Dalton is beyond measure,” said David Elrod, director of the Dalton State Foundation. “At Dalton State that impact began when he made his first gift here in 1969, and his generosity toward the college persisted for half a century.”

In 2008, Bandy created an endowment to form the Bandy Heritage Center and the Dicksie Bradley Bandy and B.J. Bandy Chair in History in memory of his parents, pioneers in the carpet industry.

“Mr. Bandy’s generosity and vision in founding the Bandy Heritage Center are true reflections of his life and his character,” said Dr. Adam Ware, director of the center. “His history here is, in so many ways, the story of our community. His successes were our successes. In the brief time I was fortunate to share with him, I valued his kindness, his good humor and his humility. Dalton has lost one of its true icons, and I have lost a friend and a mentor.

“In naming the Bandy Heritage Center, Mr. Bandy sought to honor the lives and careers of his parents,” he said. “In its service to the community, the center honors Mr. Bandy’s own spirit. The stories we preserve – about the ingenuity, entrepreneurship and resourceful optimism of this place and its people – are all stories in which Mr. Bandy played a central role, and we have all benefited from the Dalton he helped create.”

Bandy was a business leader in Dalton. He had taken over his family’s carpet business after his father died in 1948, and then co-founded Coronet Industries with Guy Henley and Bud Seretean in 1956. Coronet was eventually acquired by Beaulieu of America.

Remarks from Bandy Center Director Dr. Adam Ware on the passing of Mr. Jack Bandy:

"I was devastated to learn of Mr. Bandy’s passing. Dalton has lost one of its true icons—one of the emblems of this community at its best—and I have lost a friend and mentor. I pray for strength for his family in their grief, and I thank his physicians and his care team at Emory for the care they provided under extraordinary circumstances.

Mr. Bandy’s generosity and vision in founding the Bandy Heritage Center for Northwest Georgia in 2008 are true reflections of his life and his character. His history here is, in so many ways, the story of our community. His successes were our successes. In the brief times I was fortunate to share with him, I valued his kindness, his good humor, and his humility.

In naming the Bandy Heritage Center, Mr. Bandy sought to honor the lives and careers of his parents. In its service to the community, the Center honors Mr. Bandy’s own spirit. The stories we preserve—about the ingenuity, entrepreneurship, and resourceful optimism of this place and its people—are all stories in which Mr. Bandy played a central role, and we have all benefited from the Dalton he helped create.

The past two years have marked rapid change for the Bandy Heritage Center, and I know Mr. Bandy was excited to see the Center grow. We honor the things about this community that Mr. Bandy honored, and our work embodies his enduring desire to shape Northwest Georgia’s future by preserving and sharing its past."

(Additional information provided from Dalton State news release - "Bandy Remembered as ‘Icon’ in Northwest Georgia")