Terry Chandler Looks Back on 40 Years of Opportunity, Change, and Friends

Terry Chandler loves the jewelry industry, and it didn’t take him long in his first jewelry job to come to that realization.

“It’s the best of times for people. It’s not a sad occasion when people are buying a diamond,” he said though, he jokingly added, “It might be when they’re trying to sell it back to you.”

After more than 40 years of selling jewelry, hiring other people to sell jewelry, and heading an organization that trains people to sell jewelry, Terry, who will turn 77 in July, will retire on Dec. 31.

Last week, I had the chance to interview him about his career, which started at Michelson Jewelers in Kentucky and is ending with his current position as president and CEO of the Diamond Council of America.

We talked about the little things that became the big things: people he’s met along the way who have become lifelong friends, the bits of advice he’s picked up and carried with him, and how his sartorial staple—his bowtie—came to be.

The Polo Connection
There are two ways into the jewelry industry. You’re born into it, or you end up with a job in jewelry by accident.

Either way, you’re almost certain to fall in love and never find your way out.

Terry’s story falls into the latter category.

In the early 1980s, he was working at a high-end men’s clothing store in Franklin, Tennessee, that closed.

The store carried Ralph Lauren Polo and the Polo salesman, who was a good friend of Terry’s, had grown up with third-generation jewelers Louis and Simon Michelson of Michelson Jewelers.

The Michelsons were looking for a manager for their new mall store in Madisonville, Kentucky, and Terry got the job.

“I knew how to run a business, but I knew nothing about the jewelry business,” Terry said.

Luckily, the Michelsons were willing teachers, passing on their knowledge of the business and showing Terry how to succeed with honesty, sincerity, and integrity.

Terry took the initiative to educate himself too. He said the first industry course he ever took was a diamond course, from DCA of course.

The Genesis of the Bow Tie
Terry stayed with Michelsons for 20 years, which sounds like a long time, but, as I’ve recently come to realize, 20 years go by fast.

He became a partner in the business when one of the brothers, Simon Michelson, retired. (Simon died in 2019; Louis still works at Michelson Jewelers.)

But it was prior to becoming a partner that Terry adopted what would come to be his signature style, the centerpiece of his every ‘fit check, if you will—the bow tie.

As Terry tells it, he worked at Michelson Jewelers in Madisonville for a couple years before moving to Paducah, Kentucky, to open the chain’s new store in a mall there.

He eventually took over training, personnel, hiring, and operations for the retailer and would travel to visit the stores the Michelsons had in smaller towns outside Paducah.

On one of these trips, he stopped for a cup of coffee at a convenience store. He happened to be wearing a bow tie, and the clerk complimented his dapper neckwear.

A year later, he stopped in that same store again and the clerk said, “There’s the guy in the bow tie.”

“I knew that was my logo then; it was done,” Terry said.

After that day, he had his long neckties converted into bowties via Beau Ties of Vermont and never looked back. 

The Moment That Opened Doors
When I’m interviewing people who are retiring, I think it’s important to ask about low points—junctures at which they were struggling or perhaps even considering a different career path.

Terry said he can’t pinpoint a single incident, though he did mention the difficulties that came with COVID and in keeping a “boutique” operation like DCA afloat for so long.

“I’ve been blessed; that’s the best way I can put it,” he said.

Terry did, however, have an answer when asked for a high point, a moment that stands out in his career, and it dates to his days at Michelson Jewelers.

When he was a partner at the retailer, the Diamond Promotion Service, then headed by Preston Foy and Walter Ife, invited him to an event in New York City and while there, Terry bought some DPS training tapes (on VHS) for his stores.

The tapes were shipped to Kentucky and they were terrible, Terry said. He called Preston to ask about returning the tapes and let him know that he wasn’t impressed with the content. 

“This is a local guy in Paducah, Kentucky, running his mouth at De Beers,” Terry said.

Apparently intrigued by this input, Preston flew to Paducah to have dinner with Terry and talk about it.

A few weeks later, Terry received an invitation to join a group that, he said, “really opened doors for me”—the De Beers Carat Club.

The club was basically an advisory committee for De Beers at a time when the company couldn’t directly operate in the United States.

De Beers took Carat Club members on incredible trips to cities across Europe and to South Africa for two weeks, which Terry called “the trip of a lifetime.” 

It was comprised of about 50 people, including some of the industry’s most influential players at the time—the late Jose Hess and the late Helene Fortunoff, and a retailer who would become a close friend of Terry’s, Georgie Gleim. 

“The invitation to become a member of that club opened doors for me that otherwise I never could have opened,” Terry said. 

Changes, Good and Bad
Terry became DCA president and CEO in 2001 after serving on, and then chairing, the organization’s board. 

Working alongside Janice Mack, Mike Ross, and the late Kate Peterson, they rewrote DCA’s diamond course, added a colored gemstone course and, later, a sales course.

Terry is passionate about educating salespeople and brings up a favorite quote of another industry friend, Peter Smith.

“My friend Mr. Smith says, ‘If nobody sells anything, nothing else matters.’”

Overall, Terry cites the industry’s increased focus on education as the most positive change he’s witnessed over his four decades in the industry.

While he said industry education is still not at the level it needs to be, he feels good about leaving DCA in the capable hands of Annie Doresca, who will succeed him as president and CEO.

“I’m absolutely ecstatic that Annie is taking this position. She has such energy and she’s smart, talented, and engaging. I use all those adjectives with great sincerity,” Terry said.

“I can’t wait to see what she does with this organization.”

He also noted the boost DCA received when it entered into an affiliation agreement with Jewelers of America in 2017 and obtained access to JA’s “incredible” team.

“When the team at JA became involved, we leapt light years ahead,” he said.

Terry said the most negative change has been lab-grown diamonds, though he does not mean that in the way you might think.

“I don’t like the way ... people who don’t like lab-grown [diamonds] are denigrating it. It’s not bad that it’s lab grown; it is what it is.

“Sell your positives. Don’t try to sell what you perceive as other people’s negatives,” Terry said, adding that it doesn’t work and makes you look “petty.”

“My job as a retailer is to make sure you understand exactly what you’re getting.”

What He Won’t Miss
These last two sections are a nod to one of my favorite writers, the late Nora Ephron, and the lists she published in her last book, “I Remember Nothing.”

Terry said he will not miss all the travel that comes along with the job.

In his view, the experience of traveling has devolved over the years.

“When I first started traveling, it was glamourous. Now it’s like a Greyhound bus with wings,” he said.

What He Will Miss
What he will miss is going to jewelry shows and conferences where his many friends—“sometimes 15 deep,” according to Terry—all make time to meet for dinner.  

These friends aren’t just casual business acquaintances; they’re close personal friends that he has known for 40 or 50 years, people like Georgie and Cathy Calhoun.

Some are more than friends. His wife of almost 20 years, Cindy Chandler, was one of his friends in the industry before he had a revelation about her while they were dancing at the 24 Karat Club gala in New York in 2007. 

They married in Las Vegas six months to the day after that dance.  

“I’ll miss that,” Terry said. “I'll miss that energy.”
 
We’ll miss you too, Terry.