Shaheen Shaheen, the son of a Palestinian immigrant, was tempted in the mid-1950s to become a dealer for Ford Motor Co.’s Edsel division. Instead, he stuck with his fledgling carpet factory in Dalton, Ga.
Trying to sell the Edsel, one of the biggest flops in automotive history, would have been a disaster. Carpet, though less glamorous, proved a magical ride. Mr. Shaheen’s World Carpets Inc. was an early adopter of tufting machines using hundreds or thousands of needles to stitch yarn into a backing fabric. These automated…
