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Tom Lemons

Tom Lemons

Your earliest memories of the Institute?
My first conference was the 1966 Toronto Conference and then I attended them regularly until I started my consulting business in 1970 when I attended about every other until 1980 where I was absent when I was made a Fellow and didn't learn about it until months after the Conference when Peter Sargent (USITT Secretary) sent me my Fellows certificate. My next conference may have been when I spent a day at the Boston Conference in 1995 and then nothing until the Cincinnati Conference in 2015.

Favorite USITT memories are getting to know:

  • Tom DeGaetani--who worked with my original business partner in Europe in the 1950s.
  • Joel Rubin--other than as a Kliegl employee.
  • Don Swinney (and wife) who had been at the Civic Theatre in Indianapolis and became friends with my parents.
  • Ned Bowman who dated my sister at IU.

Short list of career highlights: 

  • Started a theatre lighting and sound company in 1950.
  • Worked for Sylvania after college (1956 - 1970) and developed TH lamps for theatre lighting.
  • Started my consulting business in 1970 was still going strong decades later. 
  • In May 2014, I finally cleared out and sold my office building which was filled with stuff I had accumulated over 50+ years starting when I was at Sylvania. I sent a lot of lamps to the USITT to use in their "yard sale" at the Cincinnati conference (as part of the Art Auction to benefit the Kook Fund) and so I went to it to help sell them. 
  • I’m a member of many societies, including: IESNA -Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, CIE - International Commission on Illumination, IDA -- International Dark-Sky and the USITT
  • Fellow of both the IESNA and USITT.

Short list of your involvement in the Institute:
USITT Board of Directors and New England Section

Memorable USITT characters that have made a difference to you:
See list above and add Ed Kook.