Founder of
Key West Woodworks

I helped my Dad build a shed when I was 12. It felt like real work. I got a summer job as a carpenter’s helper when I was 14 as well as the following summer. Part-time jobs seemed to evolve around building for the next few years. In college, I was involved in the work-study program and became an assistant in the woodshop of the art department at the University of South Florida, where I was an art student. There, I was introduced to the craft of good design and
construction. Building houses seldom lent itself for the thought and evolution of
good craft but rather had an emphasis on getting the job done as quickly as
possible. The smell of fresh cut wood was a constant and remains a smell that
draws passers by into our shop today. I met my wife and shop partner , Karen,
while in college. We graduated and bicycled from Tampa, Florida to Santa
Barbara, California . Here I worked for another great craftsman, fell in love with
wooden boats, and determined that was my future profession. The following year
we bicycled the west coast to Canada, across Canada to the Mississippi River
and south to Key West, Florida. We eventually found our shop on the docks,
where we have been for 35 years, building carved wooden signs, repairing old
sailboats, milling discarded trees, designing and building art and furniture,
teaching art and raising two wonderful children. One of them built this website.