Say what you want about Farooq Kathwari, the long-time (40 years) and now ousted ex-president of Ethan Allen. His recent strategies weren’t working, the business was overdue for a change, he even overstayed his time with the company. But there’s no denying that he built one of the best companies in the home furnishings industry and created the full-home, vertically integrated model that so many other successful companies like Ashley, La-Z-Boy and even Rooms To Go use today. Now he’s been unceremoniously dumped in a proxy fight held last week and pushed out. How unfair is it that he does not get to leave in a more dignified way commensurate for what he built and successfully ran for so many years. We get that the new board wants to start moving on its plan to revitalize Ethan Allen, and we can’t wait to see what they do to fix the business. But what is the value in being disrespectful? Retail icons are few and far between these days: Farooq Kathwari is most certainly one of them.