By Amy O'Neal
The Wilson Daily Times, Wilson NC - February 1997

Woodworker Tom McLaughlin was born too late to know his own grandfathers, but he was lucky enough to meet a man who was willing to substitute.

McLaughlin met P.A. "Pug" Moore shortly after he and his wife, Kristy, moved to Wilson in 1990.

McLaughlin's friendship with Richard Rhodes brought the couple to North Carolina. Richard's father, Dr. Cecil Rhodes, showed the couple around and introduced McLaughlin to Moore in Rocky Mount. "He was 73, and he said he didn't want to hire anybody. I asked him if he would a least critique my work", McLaughlin remembered.

"After we moved down, I took a few pieces to Mr. Moore and he said, 'You know, maybe we could work something out.' But he said there was one condition - that I had to work in his shop. That was funny because I had only a few pieces of equipment."

When Hope Plantation, the Windsor home of early 19th century Gov. David Stone, asked Moore to recommend someone to build reproduction bookcases for its new library, he recommended McLaughlin. Hope also ordered a highboy from McLaughlin and asks him to participate in its craft exhibits.

McLaughlin has made chairs for Tryon Palace in New Bern, NC. He crafted a four-section Queen Anne dining table with 16 chairs for Southeastern Baptist Seminary's Magnolia Hill in Winston-Salem, NC.

His work is scattered from Georgia to Massachusetts. He gets his ideas from museums and books. Most of his commissions are for individuals. "More and more people are starting to think of furniture as an investment," McLaughlin said. "If you commission a reproduction, you use it at the beginning of its life and as your heirs enjoy it, it will become an antique."

McLaughlin says Moore has honed the skills that his parents say he came by honestly. "One of my grandfathers was a carpenter. Then he took a job as a policeman and was killed in the line of duty. My parents say I have his talent," McLaughlin said.

His parents, both educators, went along with his decision in ninth grade to follow a vocational rather than a college preparatory track. "I loved the fine arts aspect of carpentry," McLaughlin said. "When the class got away from the creative aspect, I switched back to college prep."

He earned a degree in mathematics from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, then a master's of divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass. "I had this misconception that you had to be a missionary or a minister in order to serve God," McLaughlin said. "I had to learn that every follower of Christ has the same occupational title of servant."

When he decided to find a profession that he had the talent for and derived joy from, he turned back to woodworking. "The first four years Kristy and I were married, we lived in Buckman Tavern in Lexington, MA. It's where Paul Revere rendezvoused with the Minutemen on the eve of the Revolution," he explained. "Living there gave me an appreciation for 18th century furniture."

He praises his wife for understanding when he decided to leave the ministry and move South to become a cabinetmaker. She runs a desktop publishing company out of their frame house on Weaver Road. He works in the shop out back. They have a son, Lucas, who is 3 and a daughter, Lauren, 1. A second boy is expected soon. "An advantage to working at home is that the kids see what you do, and they understand the need to work," he said.

Although the couple's parents live in Massachusetts, McLaughlin considers Moore family. "I consider myself third generation because Mr. Moore's father started the business," he said. As Moore dismantles the shop behind his house, he has been passing on to McLaughlin tools and molds. All three of Moore's children were girls. "I feel like I gained 10 years professionally by working with Mr. Moore," McLaughlin said. Moore sharpened McLaughlin's design skills. "You can do the joinery crisp and use the right wood; but, if you don't have it on a good design," McLaughlin said, "you don't have it."

On the first day of their association, Moore called the person at the top of his order list and asked if he still wanted the piece of furniture he had ordered three years earlier. To all these calls, the answer was yes.

The furniture Moore and McLaughlin craft is a pleasure to look at, and it fetches a living wage. A bed crafted by Moore brings $4,900. One of McLaughlin's chairs costs $1000 without arms and $1,400 with.

McLaughlin says it takes 40-50 hours to make a chair. The challenge of a chair lies in its many angles, he says. The joy that building it brings is threefold: it is beautiful to look at, it is useful as a place to site, and it is comfortable if it is properly crafted.

His favorite wood to work with is mahogany because of its even grain. "It doesn't tear out like pine, and it takes a finish very well," McLaughlin said, noting sadly that now that mahogany from Santo Domingo, is the Dominican Republic, is no longer available the best is gone. His favorite wood for beauty and effect is walnut. He loves the way it lightens when it ages into mellow gold.