In the 1950's, Dave Thomas worked as a cook in the Hobby House restaurant in Fort Wayne, IN. He had dropped out of high school and served in Korea. In the Korean war, he gained a lot of experience as a cook for 1000s of GIs. One day, Colonel Sanders stopped by promoting his chicken recipe, and the owner of the Hobby House liked it so much, that he changed the restaurant to a Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Dave Thomas rose through the ranks and started advising the Colonel on what he should do to grow the brand, like trimming down the menu. He also came up with the idea for the rotating red and white bucket you see on all KFC locations, even today. He also told the colonel to appear in commercials to make customers develop an affinity towards him and therefore the restaurant. All of these strategies worked brilliantly.
With Dave's success, he was sent to Columbus, Ohio in 1962 to help with the Hobby House's owners other franchises. He was successful and in 1968, sold some of his shares of KFC back to the company and became a millionaire. Afterward, frustrated at not being able to find a decent hamburger in Columbus, he started Wendy's
Without Dave Thomas, KFC might not have survived and been as successful as it is today and without Colonel Sanders, there wouldn't be any Wendy's restaurants. I had no idea until today!
After all this talk, I sure am hungry for a Wendy's double!
Bonus fact: The Colonel actually got in a gun battle with a competing gas station owner, whom he wounded, and one of the colonel's managers was actually killed by that station owner.