Name & Position: Seymour, Director

Birthplace: New York, NY

Current Residence: West Orange, NJ

What you do at the NSC: I am the 2nd generation in our family business. My father Walter created a company in 1939 after having an opportunity to sell star sapphires and white zircons, which were very popular at the time. He was one of the first traders of loose sapphires in New York gem market. I joined the company in the mid 1970’s and improved our lapidary services in a great way. We pride ourselves on excellent cutting. Our sapphires are cut with great attention to detail and quality. My son Michael joined the company in the mid 1990’s and has now allowed me to take a comfortable semi-retirement approach to working here at the firm. He has created the technology side of our business and now oversees the day-to-day operations for me. There is a lot of pride and passion working with rare sapphires in a family business that is almost 70 years old. I continue to monitor our cutting standards and inspect our inventory and do purchasing.

What you like about working at the NSC: Now being semi-retired I have less responsibility to manage, so I try to be of help to the other employees whenever I can.

Something nice or comments about some of the other workers here at the NSC: What is very nice to witness is when our employees start to really understand and appreciate the rarity of what they are dealing with every day. It would be easy to assume that when you work with rare gemstones you might not appreciate them so much over time and become jaded in a way. But the beauty of these sapphires does not subside with time, rather I have seen that the longer people work with them the greater appreciation they develop for the true rarity of them. We spend so much time searching for good material, and so much effort in finishing them into fine quality gems, the hard work puts the reality in perspective that these are not everyday items. Seeing others really grow to appreciate them fully is wonderful.

Hobbies: The sun, sand, ocean, swimming, my terrier and sailboats. What else could be better, oh yes, sapphires.

My favorite links:
http://www.state.nj.us/travel/virtual/sandyhook
http://www.norfolkterrier.org
http://www.blockisland.com
http://www.biras.com
http://www.maplewoodonline.com/matters/southmountain
http://www.jccmetrowest.org
http://www.parkinson.org

Any other comments you want to give about yourself: I would like to thank you for your interest in our rare sapphires. We truly appreciate and thank all of our customers who have helped make our company a leader in fine natural sapphires.