Ron Friedman

Background

About Ron Friedman

I began my career in the mid-1960's as a kid working at Midland Electric, an electrical wholesaler in Cleveland, Ohio. I spent my summers and Saturdays sweeping floors, making deliveries, putting away stock, filling orders, and unloading trucks. I also worked in the company-owned appliance warehouse unloading boxcars with a towmotor. Later on, I worked in Inside Sales and after that, Outside Sales. If you think this wasn’t good training for a lighting designer, think again. I learned about hard work, respecting others, and I came to understand what happens from the breaker panel all the way to the luminaire and the person who is installing it. But truth be told, I could never get very excited about parts. Lighting fixtures; now they actually made an impact on the visual environment. I also had the good fortune to meet Cleveland lighting designers John J. Kennedy, who illuminated the Lincoln Memorial, Mount Rushmore, and the Washington Monument, and Frank LaGiusa, who lit the White House Christmas tree for five consecutive presidents. I was sold on the profession. It took me nearly a decade to gain the lighting experience I needed to even dare to call myself a designer. That, and getting fired from a lighting rep agency are what put me into the business of lighting design as an independent consultant.