Stanley C Gault

The Wooster native, whose father, Clyde, in 1920 helped create Rubbermaid in Wayne County, spent 31 years as a successful, fast-rising executive at General Electric. He lost a bid to become GE’s chief executive officer to Jack Welch. Mr. Gault shortly after joined Rubbermaid in 1980 as chairman and CEO. By the time Mr. Gault retired from there at age 65 in 1991, Rubbermaid had grown from nearly $309 million in annual sales to $1.5 billion. Some 35 days after retiring from Rubbermaid, Mr. Gault became chairman and CEO of Goodyear. Mr. Gault was born in Wooster on Jan. 6, 1926. He graduated from The College of Wooster in 1948 following service in the Army Air Corps. He joined GE in the fall of that year – he also had been offered a job at Goodyear by a management recruiter but chose to start a career in marketing appliances at GE. Mr. Gault served on other corporate boards, including Timken Co. He also was former chairman of the board of the College of Wooster. Mr. Gault’s wife, Flo, died in April 2013 in Wooster at the age of 86. They had been married 63 years and had two sons, a daughter, and grandchildren.