Page 104 - enLIGHTenment January 2016

retail spotlight

Story of Georgia Lighting in 2010, he continued to
send people he knew to the experts he mentored.

“He was a great advocate for us,” Adams remarks.
Another co-founder of Masterpiece Lighting is

Dana Hunt, a registered interpreter for the deaf
who earned a degree in Finance from Georgia State

University and had a full-time job in vocational work

when a family friend asked if he could help Gilham
with a temporary IT dilemma back in the 1990s.

Gilham admired Hunt’s aptitude for the strategic
side of the business and had him stay on, handling a

A sampling of some of the decorative hardware o ered. The entire variety of nancial and managerial positions.

selection of hardware from multiple companies spans an entire While Hunt is President of Masterpiece Lighting
large room.
and Adams is VP/Merchandising & Advertising,

neither likes the idea of “job titles.” The same goes
for Phil Sherer, another longtime Georgia Lighting

An example of a xture made from a
vintage nd, in this case an old pistol.

veteran, who joined Hunt and Adams in their David

& Goliath ght to establish a new lighting show-

room out of the ashes of what was the formidable
Georgia Lighting they loved for so many years.

“At the time that Home Depot closed Georgia
Lighting, there were 200 employees between the

showroom and World Imports,” Adams estimates.

“There were a few of us who thought, ‘We can’t let
[Georgia Lighting] die.’ We have to do something!”
The xtures that are framed in the windows are speci cally chosen to
showcase beautifully at night when illuminated.
Although they were not permi ed to buy back
the Georgia Lighting name and they had virtually

102 enLIGHTenment Magazine | January 2016
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