Noted Speaker on Textiles Business and Marketing to Lecture at Florida Tech

MELBOURNE, FLA. — Ric Hendee, vice president of marketing and communication for Cotton Incorporated, will lecture at Florida Tech on Nov. 28 at 5 p.m. His
presentation, “Marketing Cotton in an Era of High Technology Fabrics: The Success Story of Cotton Inc.,” will take place adjacent to the Academic
Support Center in Room P133. The center is connected to Evans Library.
The lecture is free and open to the public.
Hendee will discuss Cotton Incorporated’s role in engineering the fashion trend for cotton and other natural fibers that began in the 1980s. This demand
for natural fibers spelled the demise of the synthetic fibers that dominated textile markets from the late 1950s to the “Saturday Night Fever” disco fad of
the 1970s. He will present the inside history of this success story, which changed the very fabric of our lives.
Also of note, in October, Florida Tech opened the Funk Textiles Gallery, the first permanent, on campus showcase for the Ruth Funk Textiles Collection.
Located in Room 405 of the Crawford Building, the gallery is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2 to 4 p.m. or by appointment.
Cotton Incorporated, funded by U.S. growers of upland cotton and importers of cotton and cotton textile products, is the research and marketing company
representing upland cotton. The company’s world headquarters are in Cary, N.C.