NATIONAL JEWELER 11 Software for Jewelers Who Trust in Their Future Congratulations Cathy Calhoun Steve and Judy Padis on being inducted into the National Jeweler Retailer Hall of Fame. This honor could not have been bestowed on finer people. From all of us here at The Edge Luckily, that next weekend she spotted a notice in one of the trade magazines on his desk that the Gem- ological Institute of America was com- ing to Philadelphia to do a weekend education program, with one day on diamonds and one on colored stones. Bill Boyajian was the instructor for the colored stones course, and Calhoun credits his lecture with inspiring her to get her graduate gemologist (GG) diploma from GIA. Calhoun says she earned her GG through home study while working at Oletowne Jewelers, where she remained for 10 years after that fateful pre-Christmas price tag misstep, working in partnership with Strasbaugh even after the two broke up. Eventually, she decided to go out on her own and had a specific goal in mind—not to just have a jewelry store but to have an Ameri- can Gem Society jewelry store. Calhoun had heard the initials “AGS” thrown around by salesmen that came into Oletowne and understood enough about the organiza- tion to know those letters were attached to the best of the best. “For a long time,” she says, “I didn’t even know what [being anAGS store] meant. I just knew the stores that they mentioned were these very high-end stores.” That is what she wanted to own, and so she did. In early 1997, Calhoun purchased Zenker Jewelers from the retiring owners, Howard and Renee Zenker, and turned it into Calhoun Jewelers. The store remained in what Calhoun refers to as the “old Zenker building” in Royersford for five years before Calhoun Jewelers relocated to its current site, a ‘60s-era bank building on the heavily trafficked corner of Fifth and Main. It became an AGS-designated store in late 1998. How Calhoun negotiated to buy the bank building (as well as several other bank buildings in her area that she owns to this day) is a story in and of itself but, in the interest of space, it is a tale for another time. For now, it’s time to move on to another, more fun topic—this legendary jeweler’s legendary parties. PARTY GENIUS RuthBatson,anothercloseCalhounfriendwhorecentlyretiredasCEO ofAGS,hastobeimpartialsoshecan’tsayit. But Doug Hucker will:The party Calhoun presided over in 2011, when she was president ofAGS and Conclave took place in San Francisco, was the bestAGS President’s Party of all time, the “stuff of legend.” Continued on page 12 CATHY CALHOUN 2019 RETAILER HALL OF FAME “She’s a genius at special events. You never know what she’s going to do.” —Doug Hucker, CEO, American Gem Trade Association