How It Started

Charles Richter (right), carpenter c. 1910

I should have known it would come to this. Nothing crystallizes better than a life in retrospect.

As it happens … Edward, my father, was first a farmer and then a truck salesman who, additionally, liked to design and construct things. He built his own barn and the family cabin, among other structures. He was also a hobbyist woodworker with a workshop in our basement. That is where I learned to saw and fasten boards. In addition to fine cabinetry he liked to make kitchen things, birdhouses and the occasional furniture piece. Otto, my (maternal) grandfather, had a workshop in his basement too, equipped with all of the power tools available in the 1950s - Craftsman was his brand. That is where I first noticed the beauty in wood. By trade, he variously owned a silver fox farm, drove trucks and the village school bus. On the side he would make furniture and nice wooden items to sell. He was retired by the time I was born, so I only knew my grandfather as a woodworker. I recall that neighbors would bring him their broken furniture pieces and he would produce replica parts for them. Indeed, my childhood rocking chair sports a maple, Otto-made prosthetic arm. His father, Charles, a late nineteenth century immigrant from Germany, was a true carpenter. He built craftsman-style houses in Bay City, Michigan - the town where I was born. A few of his hand tools bearing a stamped “C. Richter” beneath the patina are the treasures of my collection.

This foundation, reveals two generational truths: you don’t have to just do one thing in life; and building with wood is a worthy vocation.

My professional training and career as a scientist would keep me pondering the sub-microscopic world by day - for decades. Off hours, in the macroscopic world, I dabbled in home renovations and refinished antique furniture while mostly raising a family. It was not until my older son graduated from college and I was helping him build a clothing chest … from dimensional pine and plywood … using a circular saw … while squatting on cold basement cement that it dawned on me: I had forgotten to build my workshop. From that moment I was playing catch-up with destiny. With the help of my sons, Ben and Andrew, I built a wall to partition our unfinished basement, added electrical lines and lighting, and ordered a suite of starter woodworking machines - Grizzly Industrial was my brand.

That was 2016. That is how it started.

Seasons Greetings

December 2020

Merry Christmas from the Red Top Workshop!

Keep doing what makes you happy in life - every day.

Have a prosperous 2021.