The passing of a jewelry giant
Plus: A charity that provides furniture to people in need; 🎧 Podcast features former newsman on the power of storytelling; 'A hard reset' on behavior expectations in CMS schools, superintendent says
Good morning! Today is Monday, July 24, 2023. You’re reading The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with local business-y news and insights for Charlotte, N.C.
Need to subscribe — or upgrade your Ledger e-newsletter subscription? Details here.
Today's Charlotte Ledger is sponsored by T.R. Lawing Realty:
Ernest Perry led a successful jewelry business for nearly 50 years and volunteered as a quick-tongued auctioneer for countless charities; ‘He had a knack for seeing what other people couldn’t see’
Ernest Perry was known widely in Charlotte for his business acumen and his philanthropy. (Photo courtesy of Perry’s Diamonds & Estate Jewelry)
by Cristina Bolling
Ernest Perry, one of Charlotte’s best-known names in retail as the co-founder and president of the Perry’s Diamonds & Estate Jewelry business, passed away suddenly early Saturday morning. He was 78.
Perry’s heart for philanthropy was also well known across the city. He served as a volunteer auctioneer at countless gala events to benefit many Charlotte charities, using his training as a quick-tongued talker to raise money for causes that were important to him.
Relationships were the backbone of his life, both in business and personal dealings, his wife, Priscilla Perry, and two of his daughters told The Ledger in an interview Sunday afternoon.
“He was very humble. People have been coming by and sharing stories during the last day-and-a-half, and he did so many things we didn’t even know about for people,” said daughter Hadley Perry. “He was a very generous, very giving person.”
Perry was born in Wilmington, N.C., and moved to Charlotte as a young boy. The third of six children, hard work was instilled early. He had a paper route by the age of 8 and sold magazines door-to-door.
He attended the University of Maryland and spent several years in the Army, after which he managed a Greensboro-based jewelry store in the SouthPark Mall called the Jewel Box. Priscilla, who was also working at the mall when they met, remembers his yearning to break out on his own and build a business.
“He was very much an idea person — not so much into the details — but a very creative person,” Priscilla Perry said.
In the late 1970s, the couple created a business where people could bring pieces of jewelry they no longer wanted or needed to charity meetings — old watches or single earrings whose mates had gone missing — and Perry would appraise the pieces, giving the donors a tax write-off, and then liquidate the pieces at flea markets. The charities got 60% while the Perrys kept the remaining 40%.
In 1977, the Perrys opened Perry’s Jewelry Emporium on Independence Boulevard where the public could sell their jewelry, and as the prices of gold and silver rose and business got busier and busier, they opened a small showroom.
They made a move to SouthPark Mall in 1981, and the business was renamed Perry’s at SouthPark. They remained there until 2012, when they moved to their current location on Carnegie Boulevard across from the mall.
All the while, Perry put to good use the training he got at auctioneering school in High Point, donating his time to help charities raise money. In 2007, the Charlotte Observer wrote a profile of Perry with the headline “Auctioneer Ernest Perry has made millions of dollars over the years. And it’s all gone to someone else.”
“He didn’t play golf because that was too slow for him,” but auctioneering was more his speed, Priscilla Perry said. Charities he helped as an auctioneer and as a donor included Make-A-Wish, the Allegro Foundation, the American Heart Association, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Second Harvest Food Bank and Charlotte Rescue Mission. The family estimates he helped organizations raise more than $55M over 45 years of auctioneering.
Perry’s Diamonds & Estate Jewelry now has 32 employees, including some workers who have been there more than 30 years. It’s a family run operation. Priscilla is the co-founder, secretary and treasurer; daughter Brittany Holden is vice president, and Hadley Perry is chief operations officer.
Fine jewelry stores can be intimidating places for people unaccustomed to buying luxury goods, and Perry’s wife and daughters said he made it a mission to make his store a place where everyone feels comfortable.
“That was very much the focus of all of our meetings: every client is a million-dollar client,” Priscilla Perry said. “You treat everyone with respect.”
For someone who made a business out of outfitting customers with fine jewelry and timeless treasures, Perry wasn’t extravagant with his own style. He wore clothes he could buy off the rack, and kept his own jewelry wearing simple.
“He was very much down-to-earth and appreciative of what he was able to do to provide for himself and his family,” Holden said.
When two of Perry’s younger brothers didn’t know what path they wanted to take after high school, Perry paid for them to attend the Gemological Institute of America in New York, Priscilla Perry said. Both went on to have jewelry careers.
He had a fun and at times mischievous sense of humor, and he delighted in making people smile with a tongue twister, his daughters said. He loved playing with his grandchildren and going to Carolina Beach, where he and Priscilla have a second home.
Hadley Perry said her dad worked up until the day he passed away.
One of the company’s employees sent the family an email after learning of Perry’s passing, she said, which encapsulates what so many people thought of him:
“She said he always saw the diamonds in the rough. He saw the value and potential in all people. And he had a knack for seeing what other people couldn’t see.”
Ernest Perry is survived by four daughters, including two daughters from a previous marriage. He leaves behind six grandchildren. Plans are underway for a celebration of life to be held in August.
Cristina Bolling is managing editor of The Ledger: cristina@cltledger.com
Related Ledger article:
“In a family of jewelers, he cut a different path” (Nov. 23, 2020)
Today’s supporting sponsor is Landon A. Dunn, attorney-at-law in Matthews…
Charity Spotlight: Local nonprofit provides gently used furniture for those in need
Furnish for Good works with over 40 volunteers each week (pictured above) who help collect and stage donated furniture so that the nonprofit’s clients feel like they’re shopping in a store. (Photo courtesy of Furnish for Good)
When local organizations like Roof Above and Charlotte Rescue Mission help their clients find housing, they don’t always have the resources to help them furnish it. That’s when Furnish for Good comes in.
Furnish for Good is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that repurposes donated furniture and furnishings for those in need, working toward resolving issues of economic mobility and inequality in Mecklenburg County.
Furnish for Good was founded in 2019 by a group of women led by Charlotte author, speaker and homeless advocate Kathy Izard, who were inspired by The Green Chair Project in Raleigh, a nonprofit organization that has a similar mission.
There’s a list online that has a list of what types of furniture are accepted and what are not accepted. Furnish for Good accepts drop-off donations two days a week and offers free pick-up to those who live in Mecklenburg County.
Since 2019, Furnish for Good has served 1,327 people across 597 moves, totaling over 13,000 items, according to Lynn Hughes, development director of Furnish for Good.
The nonprofit works with case managers from other partner agencies like Salvation Army, Roof Above and Charlotte Rescue Mission to connect with families and single men and women who need assistance furnishing their homes. Hughes said the nonprofit’s partner agencies are able to help their clients, who may be struggling with homelessness, addiction or domestic violence, find homes, but they don’t always have the resources to help furnish them.
Furnish for Good also provides dining, cooking and bathroom packs that include the necessities.
“It's not just a bed and bedding and a sofa and a lamp; it’s also forks in the drawer, a shower curtain in the bathroom, accessories and art to make it feel like home,” Hughes said.
Furnish for Good stages its donated items in a showroom. Clients can either come in person or shop online and pick out what they want. The pandemic forced Furnish for Good to move its showroom online. Now, the store is hybrid, which allows those who don’t have access to transportation to shop.
“What we do is nothing new, but how we do it is,” Hughes said. “We want them to feel like there's some dignity in the process and that they have a choice in what their new home is going to look like.”
A standard package costs $250 and includes a sofa, end tables, artwork, a desk or bookshelf, a dresser, a dining table and chairs and more. Furnish for Good packs it all up and delivers it. For larger families, they can add additional furniture for a small fee.
Furnish for Good has six people on its staff and works with more than 40 weekly volunteers, who help collect donations, set up the showroom vignettes and deliver them.
The nonprofit is funded through donations from individuals, corporations and foundations. The nonprofit recently received a $25,000 grant from the LendingTree Foundation.
In November, Furnish for Good plans to host its annual fundraiser called “Furnished.” It’s an online interior design competition and auction. Ten local interior designers will put together a vignette with donated furniture, and the community is invited to vote online for their favorite. In the past, Hughes said Furnished has brought in $200,000. —LB
Taking Stock, sponsored by Topsail Wealth Management
Topsail Wealth Management partners with you to provide personalized advice. Minimizing costs and the complexities of your wealth and investing plan.
How local stocks of note fared last week (through Friday’s close), and year to date:
🎧New podcast: Former TV newsman Shawn Flynn on the power of storytelling
Storytelling is a big part of Shawn Flynn’s job as the chief communications officer for Holy Angels, an organization in Charlotte that provides care to those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Before he went to work at Holy Angels, Flynn spent 24 years as a TV news reporter. He retired from the news business after his 6-year-old son Liam was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2018. Liam has fully recovered, and in this podcast, Flynn talks about how he used storytelling during Liam’s journey to recovery to launch a viral blood drive campaign and now write a book.
The interview is part of a series highlighting winners of The Ledger’s 40 Over 40 awards. Flynn won in 2020. The episode is hosted by Steve Dunn of Miles Mediation and Arbitration.
How to listen: The Charlotte Ledger Podcast is available on our website, as well as on podcast platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast and Google Podcasts. —CB
Quotable: ‘Huge reset’ coming in how CMS handles discipline and behavior expectations
New Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Crystal Hill hit on lots of topics during a 90-minute visit last week to the Sarah Stevenson Tuesday Forum, a weekly meeting that invites local leaders to speak about different topics.
One topic of note during Hill’s appearance was how CMS plans to address escalating discipline problems in Charlotte’s schools. Hill had responded to a question from an audience member, and here’s what she said:
One of the things we have seen in education — and it’s not just CMS but across the country — is when we were returning to school … a lot of the expectations that we had we let sip a lot. Not only for students but also for staff. Quite honestly, we were happy that people were back in the building. There were certain things we allowed to go unchecked.
It’s a new day. We need to elevate our expectations of ourselves, of our staff members and our students. And that’s everything from how we are showing up in appearance with dress code, how we are interacting with each other, adult to adult, adult to student, student to adult. It’s extremely important. … We need a hard reset.
One of the things that we jumped feet-first into is an initiative called “Capturing Kids’ Hearts.” The premise of Capturing Kids’ Hearts is you can’t capture a student’s mind until you capture their heart.
The expectation is that we as adults need to know and understand how we need to interact with each other and model that, and then … teach students what we expect when they come to school every single day and be very clear with them about the consequences when they don’t follow through on what we have expected of them. And we are clear about how we are going to teach those expectations. It’s a huge reset. It will be a mind-shift for us. It won’t happen overnight, but it is something we are committed to.
You can see a video recording of Hill’s presentation and the Q&A session here. —CB
You might be interested in these Charlotte events
Events submitted by readers to The Ledger’s events board:
NOW THROUGH JULY 30: Queen’s Feast: Charlotte Restaurant Week®. Spice up your summer with new flavors during Queen’s Feast, July 21-30, as 90+ restaurants in 9 counties around the metro area showcase their cuisine with 3-course, prix fixe specials at dinner. View menus and make reservations at CharlotteRestaurantWeek.com. $30-$50 depending on the restaurant.
FRIDAY: 24 Hours of Booty, 7 p.m. at Queens University of Charlotte. Join 24 Foundation in celebrating 22 years of changing the course of cancer. Ride or stride (July 28-29) at the 24 Hours of Booty charity non-competitive cycling and walking event in Charlotte’s Myers Park neighborhood or create a virtual “UnLooped” event. Price varies.
◼️ Check out the full Ledger events board.
➡️ List your event on the Ledger events board.
In brief:
Jordan cashes out: The NBA’s board of governors has approved Michael Jordan’s sale of his majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets. Jordan paid $180M in 2010 for majority control of the team, and sources say the sale is for $3B. (Sports Illustrated) [Edited 7/24/23 to correct estimated sales price]
Greenway assault: Police are investigating an alleged sexual assault that took place on the McAlpine Creek Greenway in south Charlotte on Saturday morning. The victim told police she was walking on the greenway when a man came up, exposed himself, and grabbed her inappropriately. Police said they believe the suspect then ran in the direction of Pike Nurseries nearby. Police said they are beefing up presence at greenways across the county. (WCNC)
Crump marks a milestone: Veteran Charlotte TV journalist Steve Crump turns his storytelling lens on himself as he reports on the rollercoaster ride that has been his life in the five years since he was diagnosed with colon cancer. (WBTV)
New casinos: North Carolina legislators are considering legalizing up to four new casinos across the state in Nash, Rockingham and Anson counties, and one run by the Lumbee Tribe in southeastern North Carolina. The move would bring tourism money and economic development to areas of the state that need more income. (WUNC via WFAE)
Syphilis outbreak: A former Mecklenburg County health department employee told WBTV that not enough is being done to trace cases and warn people about a surge in syphilis. Statewide, cases of the sexually transmitted disease in women have risen 538%, while congenital syphilis, where a mother passes the disease to an unborn child, rose 4,100%. (WBTV)
Need to sign up for this e-newsletter? We offer a free version, as well as paid memberships for full access to all 4 of our local newsletters:
➡️ Opt in or out of different newsletters on your “My Account” page.
➡️ Learn more about The Charlotte Ledger
The Charlotte Ledger is a locally owned media company that delivers smart and essential news through e-newsletters and on a website. We strive for fairness and accuracy and will correct all known errors. The content reflects the independent editorial judgment of The Charlotte Ledger. Any advertising, paid marketing, or sponsored content will be clearly labeled.
Like what we are doing? Feel free to forward this along and to tell a friend.
Social media: On Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Sponsorship information/customer service: email support@cltledger.com.
Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Staff writer: Lindsey Banks; Contributing editor: Tim Whitmire, CXN Advisory; Contributing photographer/videographer: Kevin Young, The 5 and 2 Project