Harpur Hotline, June 19, 2003

Alumni Spotlight: Gerry Starr `70, Woodworker and Cabinetmaker

"I never lived in the U.S. until I was 16," said Starr, whose father worked for the US Department of State. "We moved every two years." Starr grew up, among other places, in Vietnam, Iraq, Iran, and Panama. He remains an avid traveler and plans a trip to Africa in January 2004.

If your home in the Hamptons has been remodeled, chances are, Gerry Starr `70 was involved. The founding partner of Grains of Wood of East Hampton, Inc., he has spent the last twenty-five years as a cabinetmaker, woodworker and builder of custom furniture. Although his carpentry career started as a way to support his love of surfing and travel, it has blossomed into a very successful business, and New York's top architects frequently hire his company to help remodel the homes of many celebrities. Starr has also struck the perfect balance between building a thriving career and maintaining a free, independent lifestyle; he works during the summer (but still takes off an occasional afternoon to surf the Hamptons' famous beaches) and travels during the winter months. Here is his story:

I always wanted to do something that was rewarding and challenging but still allowed me to have full control over my life. So, after I graduated from Harpur College in 1970, I spent my summers surfing and life guarding; then I worked during the winter as a carpenter and developed many skills in that profession. Also, to make some extra money, I drove the Hampton Jitney (a bus that travels from the Hamptons to New York City) a few days a week. I met a lot of clients that way and started getting more business as a carpenter.

I've always loved wood -- the texture, the way it works and the machinery I use to cut it. I like its uniqueness. I also like the smell (but when we use some tropical woods, they can be a little toxic!). The machines we use are big, old models from the 1950's, but we like them better than the state-of-the-art, computerized equipment that's coming out now. For one thing, our machines are tried and tested. They are also quite effective. I think a lot of it has to do with their bulk; our machines are very sturdy and powerful, as a lot of appliances from the 1950's are, and when you put wood through them, you know it's going to be cut right.

Details such as handmade pillars, trim, and moldings keep Starr's work in demand.

The business has changed because of the economy and the price of land. People tend to renovate houses instead of tear them down and build something entirely new. They have stopped constructing the big, monolithic houses they used to build in the 80's and 90's. Few can afford those kind of houses anymore. Anyway, as an environmentalist, I think this is a better trend; it's kind of like recycling. So a lot of the work my company currently has involves restorations. The ground under a house might shift over the years, for example, causing the floor to tip slightly, and part of our challenge is compensating for that.

We also make furniture, which I really enjoy. When I was just getting started in the business, I bought a few tools and took out every book from the library I could find on furniture making. Today, we mostly work from an architect's plans. Recently, however, we finished a big dining room table that we designed ourselves.

One of the fun parts of working in the Hamptons is that I've met some celebrities on the job. We worked for John Avildsen, for example, who directed the first "Rocky" movie. I did the whole house of Jimmy Kirkwood, who wrote "A Chorus Line," and made him a beautiful dining room table. We also just finished making the doors for the house of "Sex and the City" star Kim Cattrall. Her house is actually quite modest, and she was very nice.

I worked on my own for a while, and then my business partner, Robert Moss, joined me about twelve years ago. I could have expanded my company more and hired a lot of people, but that would have turned me into an administrator. I prefer to work hands-on with wood, so I've kept my company small.

My education at Harpur College taught me how to focus. This is a crucial skill in my line of work. Every carpenter has the same skills and machinery, but making a project come out just right is the product of good organizational skills. For example, we recently created what I call a "winter library" for one of our clients. It had paneled walls and cabinets that spanned the entire room. The ceiling had a crown molding, the walls had a picture molding and a chair rail further down, and the floor had a base molding. The distance between the moldings all needed to be exactly the same,, and everything needed to line up precisely with the paneling. The discipline I acquired in college is the key to my success with this kind of project.

In the end, I wanted a lifestyle where I could make my own hours and even work at night if I want. My career as a carpenter, and founding Grains of Wood, has been everything I could have wanted in a career: it's been interesting, challenging, and, most of all, independent. I also find a lot of gratification in finishing a project and knowing that my work will be used (and abused) and still hold up. Sometimes, we return to jobs we finished fifteen or twenty years ago and find that our old work is still in good shape. That's definitely a gratifying experience.

Starr said his years at Harpur College, 1967 - 1970, were a "strange time" for him, and he recalled that final exams were canceled his last semester because of the riots and shootings at Kent State University. He also remembers that the faculty at Harpur were very sympathetic toward the antiwar protests and that some "serious militant activists were on the campus."

While many of his classmates aimed for law and medicine, Starr did not have a specific career goal. "If you weren't in college, you were going to Vietnam or Canada," he said. "There were no other options at the time, so you stayed in school and hoped the war would be over." Starr majored in history and minored in political science; he best remembers Richard Deknesian, professor emeritus of political science.

Starr lived in what was then jokingly called "the sports dorm," Digman Hall. He was on the swim team all four years of college and was the captain of the team in 1969 and 1970. They practiced every day from fall until March and swam ten meets per season, an experience Starr said taught him perseverance.

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