Born in Chicago, Moser had a bit of a rough start. At 14, his mother died. At 18, his father, who was a typesetter for the Chicago Tribune, also died. He joined the U.S. Air Force, and was stationed in Greenland for four years, working as a police officer. After his service he went back to school to study speech communication at the State University of New York at Geneseo. Shortly before graduating he married his childhood sweetheart, Mary. To help pay the bills, he repaired antique furniture.
Once graduated, the couple moved to Ann Arbor, where he taught high school and studied for a Masters of Fine Arts at the University of Michigan, then back to New York for his Ph.D. from SUNY Cortland, which — after a year teaching in Saudi Arabia — finally brought him in 1966 to be a professor at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. But of all things, what called to him was that job working on antique furniture. He took a sabbatical from Bates in 1972 to start a furniture company with Mary. He didn’t want to churn out junk: he wanted to make furniture like it was made in the days of early American craftsmen, by hand. “These days, you can go to Ikea and buy a whole house’s worth of stuff for several thousand dollars, and throw it all out in five years,” he said in a 2013 interview. “Our furniture might take two months to make, but we want it to stay in the family and have it passed down from generation to generation.”
The prices match: his signature “Continuous Arm Chair” (photo in archive) costs $2,100-$2,730, depending on the wood used. His 1972 Rocker (named for the year Thos. Moser Handmade American Furniture was founded): $5,250-$6,825, “developed by Tom Moser with the sculptural influences of his son, David, to create a rocking chair that is distinctly Moser — enduring, timeless, and, most importantly, comfortable.” It’s also exceptionally beautiful. And he expects it to last. He quoted a motto of the Shakers, who were known for their exceptional furniture: “Build an object as though it were to last a thousand years and as if you were to die tomorrow.” The New York Times put it this way: “Amortized over 75 years or more, such a chair starts to look like a bargain.”
That dedication to old fashioned early American quality brought in buyers from American presidents to the Pope to private homes. The company grew to 70 expert men and women working in a 90,000-square-foot workshop. Anything not made to order goes to one of four showrooms in four cities from San Francisco to Boston.
Needless to say, Moser never returned to the tenure track professorship at Bates. “We had no particular reason to believe we could succeed, but I had to make things out of wood. It was as simple as that.” Tom and Mary’s son, Aaron, rose to be chairman of the company. “Heirloom furniture recalls an era of pride in workmanship and a necessity to make things that would last,” he said. “In age, these pieces look as good and relevant as they were when first purchased.” In January, at 89 years old, Tom was finally ready to retire, and sold the company to Chenmark, a holding company that specializes in keeping small businesses running “with a dedication to preserving legacies and ensuring long-term success,” the company says. “This is not simply a business transition,” Aaron said. “It’s the continuation of a story that started in Maine and will remain deeply rooted here.” Thomas Francis Moser died in his Maine home on March 5. He was 90.