Abstract:
                            
                            
                                After World War II, Marshall Rauch joined his wife's family's textile business in Bessemer City in Gaston County, later starting his own business, Pyramid Mills. A big break came in 1963, when Spiegel Catalog Company placed an order for Christmas ornaments woven with rayon thread., Rauch Industries went public in 1983 and was sold for $50 million in 1996.  In addition to business, Rauch used his leadership skills to gain inclusion for blacks and Jewish people in Gaston County .  He is currently 97 years old.