The lighting industry has long been one dominated by family owned and operated companies on both sides of the vendor/retailer equation and while that has diminished over the years, the legendary people who helped build these companies in the first place will always stand out as special in the business.
One such person was Ira Phillips, the long-time face of Quoizel, who passed away this spring at age 90. Ira had stepped away in recent years from actively running the company but for many in the business he will always be remembered as the man who joined a small lighting supplier in the mid-1960s and built it into one of the powerhouses of the industry.
It was in 1927 – the year Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs – that down the road from Yankee Stadium in the Bronx Sophie and Maurice Phillips had their own hit: a baby boy named Ira. After starting a family on Long Island, NY, Ira went to work for a company called Quoizel Lighting Co. in 1964. He was a natural and as the family wrote in his online eulogy, “To say that he was an incredible salesman is, at best, an understatement.”
He soon was able to gain a partnership in the small company due to his salesmanship and within a few years he bought out his partners and Quoizel was his. As his eulogy says, “Ira was a true force of nature. His success was largely due to his ability to understand and care about his customers. Over the years he built Quoizel into the preeminent national firm that it is today.”
Family was always important to Ira, and his children – as well as grandchildren and other relatives – all worked in the business. As he started to cut back his involvement with day-to-day management of Quoizel, Ira handed the reigns over to a non-family member Rick Seidman who continues as president today.
But that didn’t mean he wasn’t involved with all that went on at the company. At markets, he was famous for his back room closeout deals and constant presence at the showroom. Even as he slowed down physically one could always find Ira on his scooter wheeling and dealing and being the “incredible salesman” he always was.
“He was still the grandpa to the entire company,” Seidman told LightSource. “Up until very recently he was in the office almost every day because he was the kind of guy who wanted to be with his family, which was everyone at the company. His office was more like a living room than an office.”
Seidman said that Phillips was not just the person who owned the company. “He was the patriarch of the business and defined our culture. He wanted to create a place where people wanted to work.
“We always said our definition of success was simple: the customers like what we do, our employees like to be here and we should make some money.
“He was a good guy.”
“Ira was a legendary leader,“ said Cindy Morris, president of the Dallas Market Center where the company has always had its flagship showroom. “His company’s success was due in no small part to its family culture, supportiveness and generosity. We loved him and we respected him and we know that his life was a positive example to all.”
His personal life was no less impressive. As the family online tribute says, “In the 1970's Ira met his true soul mate, Nila Clark. What seemed like an odd pairing, the consummate New Yorker and a girl from the hills of West Virginia, turned out to be a romance for the ages.
“They were enthusiastic supporters of the Israel Tennis Center and their fundraising efforts profoundly impacted the sport in Israel. In addition to his children, Toni (Lee), Todd (Kaye) and Gene (Amy), Ira is survived by six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.” (A fourth child, Nina, predeceased him.)
Quoizel continues as one of the lighting industry’s giants. But the giant behind the company has passed on. “While we have lost a true dynamo, his spirit and values will live on through all that have known him,” the family wrote.