David Craig Jewelers—a respected Langhorne, Pa., retailer headed by David Craig Rotenberg, longtime member of the American Gem Society—is closing after more than 40 years in business.
“I’m not doing this for the average reason,” Rotenberg says. “Business has been strong for the past years. It’s strong now.”
Medical issues that make it hard for Rotenberg to move around and do everything required in retail led him to call it quits, he says. “I’m 78 years old, and how much more can you do? It’s not sad. It’s just the reality. Eventually you have to tone it down.”
Rotenberg got his first job in jewelry in 1964. “I needed a job. And eventually the job developed into a career.”
He started David Craig Jewelers in 1981 and has always been at the same location. “I love the jewelry business,” he says. “At times I think about ‘Why am I leaving?’”
Asked for advice for other jewelers, Rotenberg says, “I think the industry should be an industry of love. If you don’t treat people well, there is no future.”
His store has been running a closing sale. “We’re doing absolutely fabulous,” Rotenberg says. “I tell my wife that maybe I shouldn’t call it quits.”
Rotenberg has served as president of the AGS Jewelers Education Foundation and founder and past president of the AGS Keystone Guild. In 2017, AGS awarded him the title of Certified Gemologist Appraiser Emeritus for his work on appraisal issues. He’s also won the International Society of Appraisers leadership award.
He has been active in local charities: In 2005, he became a member of the advisory board of St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne. Rotenberg’s most unusual affiliation came in the 1990s, when the Kuwaiti government asked him to appraise jewelry losses resulting from the Iraqi invasion.
(Photo courtesy of David Craig Jewelers)
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