WASHINGTON-Retiring Executive Vice President Philip P. Friedlander Jr. will offer his farewell address to the National Tire Dealers & Retreaders Association at its convention and trade show in Atlanta, Sept. 4-7. Mr. Friedlander, planning to retire Dec. 31 after 42 years on
the NTDRA's administrative staff, will speak at the association's annual meeting, Thursday, Sept. 5.
His talk will focus on the future of independent dealers and how they fit into the tire distribution system, according to the NTDRA.
Mr. Friedlander joined the NTDRA staff in 1954 as editor of the association's Dealer News magazine. Later, he was promoted to director of public relations, then to director of communications and to executive vice president in 1978.
Under his leadership, the association instituted a number of significant member services, including: the NTDRA's ``Money Express'' credit card; a check guarantee service for dealers; a series of tire mounting and demounting training videos; sponsorship of a 1983 study on the future of tire industry by Louis W. Stern of Northwestern University; and publication in 1989 of the book, ``A Practical Approach to Improving Tire Dealer Profits,'' based in large part on financial research directed by Robert G. Cox of the University of South Florida.
As a member of the NTDRA staff and ultimately as chief administrative officer, he was said to be involved in every major legislative battle the association faced over the last four decades.
He was among the first trade association lobbyists to push for construction of the U.S. interstate highway system in the 1950s. Later, he was instrumental in gaining passage of legislation eliminating the excise tax on tread rubber, making tire registration voluntary rather than mandatory, eliminating registration of passenger retreads and outlawing the regrooving of passenger tires.
Mr. Friedlander served as industry manager of the Tire Retread Information Bureau in the mid-1970s, when TRIB's promotional efforts on behalf of retreading won the Public Relations Society of America's highest award as the ``outstanding institutional public relations program in the U.S.''