Renowned Maine furniture maker Thomas Moser has died. He was 90.
Moser died on Wednesday, and his death was made public on Friday by his family, according to the Portland Press Herald.
A former Bates College professor inspired by the simplicity of Shaker design and the love of woodcraft, Moser founded Thos. Moser Cabinetmakers with his wife Mary in 1972 in an old Grange hall in New Gloucester. The business has been based in Auburn since 1987.
Moser crafted a chair for Pope Benedict XVI in 2008 and was called upon by the Vatican again in 2015 to make chairs for Pope Francis and four cardinals on a visit to Philadelphia.
He was commissioned to build 55 pieces for the George W. Bush Presidential Center, and produced pieces for Ronald Reagan’s Presidential Library, and a lectern for Bill Clinton.
“We are not in the furniture industry,” Moser told the Bangor Daily News in 2015. “The furniture industry is more like snake oil and horse trading. Today 85 percent of American furniture is made in China.”
Today Thos. Moser Cabinetmakers employs about 70 people at its 90,000-square-foot facility in Auburn and showrooms in Freeport, Boston, Washington D.C., and San Francisco.
