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LeisureCraft owner Dick Herman dies at age 78

By Lightning Reports, Published: May 5, 2025

Richard Julian “Dick” Herman, who started his LeisureCraft business making wooden furnishings and grew into a large wholesale supplier of high-quality metal outdoor products, died on Saturday in Hendersonville, according to an obituary posted by Church Street Funeral & Cremation. He was 78.

Born on June 29, 1946, to the late Carlton Martin and Estelle Nadler Herman in Berkeley, California, Herman was respected and admired for building LeisureCraft into a leading supplier of distinctive and durable furnishings — including the familiar green and blue trash and recycling receptacles on Main Street of his hometown. Leisure also sells stadium furnishings, benches, tables, chairs, bike racks and other products for outdoor settings.

After founding LeisureCraft in 1979, Herman, a military veteran, grew the custom fabricator over the next decade and a half until it shifted its primary focus from point-of-purchase wooden products to the metal outdoor furnishing line, the company website said.

Since 1996, the plant on Upward Road has grown to its current size of over 100,000 square feet with two shifts of approximately 160 employees. The company also has a large sawmill facility about a mile away that provides support for the manufacturing operations, the website added.

There are no services planned at this time, the funeral home said.