Scott Morgan Part 2

My previous post talked about how Scott and I met and got started on our business adventure in the furniture industry. I have only known Scott for about five or so years although it feels like we have been friends our whole lives. But I wanted to talk about a few other aspects of Scott's life and mind and character and interests here. One aspect of Scott's life has been a blossoming in the last few years of his watercolor paintings. I'm not sure when he started doing these, but they have really come on in numbers and artistic quality in the last two or three years. As mentioned previously, he is also a "jazz singer" of sorts.

One of the amazing aspects of visiting Scott in his home is that he has a most amazing collection of Chinese textiles and artifacts from his many visits over the years doing business in China. He became a connoisseur of Chinese crafts, history, and art. Scott took real pleasure in sharing his treasures with visitors, but only if he felt that he could trust the visitor and that the visitor would truly appreciate what was being shown. Trunks and drawers would be opened to pull out centuries old delicacies of sewing, embroidery and other skills. He also had like many collectors, tangential collections of items like carved  nuts and brass coins, and gold embroidery. He also had a couple of shaman necklaces. 

One evening after a day in the showroom at High Point, Doug Miller, Richard Hawk, Candra Squire and I and a few others gathered in Scott's living room and he started pulling items out of a trunk to show us. One of those items was the shaman's necklace. We stood in a circle and watched as first Rich was handling it. Scott said that this necklace has "some powerful mojo" and we all basically said "sure" cynically. A moment later, Rich started practically howling about what he was feeling. Now Rich is a great guy, but he does have a bit of the Southern California spirit in him so we all reacted rather skeptically to him as well. I asked for the necklace. I am not a believer in crystals, new age spirituality or ghosts. So I was ready for - nothing. Instead, this necklace which contained teeth, coins, crystals, hair, and other assorted trinkets pulsated with an electricity that traveled up and down my arm. I immediately gave it back. It was not necessarily a good feeling and seemed ominous, but there is no doubt that it did occur. This was just one of the items hiding, laying, waiting for the next opportunity for someone to discover it.

Another thing to know about Scott is that he loves ping pong. He bought an expensive German ping pong table and created a room down in his basement that is a bit of a ping pong shrine. Although an amateur ( I'm sure there are pros out there somewhere ) he is quite good. When it comes to competition, he turns it up a notch. I'm not bad, but in the dozens of games we played, I never beat him once. He has a paddle collection, so that anyone can come and play and select their favorite paddle and never use the lack of a comfortable paddle as an excuse if they were to lose. He also had a page of ping pong rules posted on the wall. He also owned a ping pong ball machine similar to a tennis feeding machine. This was not your High School party in the basement ping pong that I had grown up with. However, my tennis skills allowed me to keep the games close enough to be competitive. They were always great opportunities to talk about a range of topics. 

There is so much to talk about in relation to Scott. He loves his dogs Loulie and Hershey. Loulie 1 and her successor Loulie 2 were extremely well trained intelligent companions that transcended being pets. He supported Katy and her art making and business ventures. He did not suffer fools gladly. He loves art and collecting. He is not caught up in what other people think of him. He is a natural salesman. He knows the furniture industry inside and out, could look at a piece and understand how it was made (even though he is not a craftsman), would know how much it cost to make and would understand how it should be marketed. And he loves talking about it. He is critical of bad design, encouraging of his friends and good design and loves people that are smart and have something to offer. 

Last story in this post from an email that Scott sent out:

"of these beads, history.....
1968
in  a park in new delhi. india.......
a man very old 80/90 years old, in orange comes up to me. scotto
no words, no reason.  takes off the beads, puts them around my neck, smiles walks on very slow into the park never to be seen by me again

these i have always had.

cherished kept safe and the day before our journey to Goa put on ...with original string.  by now very threadbare .when i put them on my neck string broke. i screamed.  oh no!
all the beads hit floor in High Point. NC. home
scattered. i picked them  up  put in a baggie and said maybe i will re string these in India in Goa  after we arrive.
then  I will give them to someone
same as was given to me." - SM

more to come in the next post....