Page 66 - enLIGHTenment Magazine - September 2016

Stark Raving Fans

Stark Raving Fans

A memorial tribute to industry veteran and lighting
“H

sales representative David Stark of Lighting

Concepts International in Sco sdale.
BY LINDA LONGO

ey! When am I going to be the cen- a serious businessman underneath. I discovered
terfold of your magazine?” David that aspect when interviewing him for a story on his

Stark would greet me with that line agency in 2012. It wasn’t the nude centerfold he had

at every Dallas Market since I rst been asking for; he was disappointed to learn the
met him in 1994. To make sure he
article would be about him and his business — and

was clear, he’d then pantomime holding a maga- he was surprisingly shy in talking about himself.
zine vertically and add, “I’d like it to be a fold-out, Growing up in a military family that moved all over

too.”
the country, he had a talent for making friends wher-

Was he serious? Yes and no. Yes, he would have ever he was. It was while earning his Business degree
been thrilled to participate if the o er was ever at the University of Notre Dame that he happened

made, but no, I don’t think he was actively counting upon a part-time job that seemed tailor-made for
on it — well, maybe just a li le bit. With David, you him: working for Anheuser-Busch, promoting Bud-

never quite knew when he was joking or not with weiser® in university bars and o ering promotional

some of the outlandish things he’d say, but that was paraphernalia to fellow students and bar patrons.
part of his charm.
Not surprisingly, this college student was so good at

While everyone in the industry instantly recog- the task, the opportunity turned into a full-time job
nizes David for his happy-go-lucky nature, there was
with the beer giant in Florida.

64 enLIGHTenment Magazine | SepteMber 2016
www.enlightenMentMag.coM