CityView Magazine

living Crafting a Friendship BY KHARY MCGHEE J Jerry Dean and Rick Booth build beautiful furniture that will last for generations erry Dean literally barged into Rick Booth's life. There really is no other way to describe the beginning of their friendship. Booth, a Hope Mills dentist, was in his woodworking workshop enjoying what is perhaps his favorite pastime. A wide open door allowed Dean, who was passing by, to catch enough of a glimpse inside to pique his interest. It was an excusable intrusion. Dean is an avid furniture maker himself, and a quick glance at some of Booth's tools and machines got him thinking that he may have stumbled upon a kindred spirit from what little he saw. 16 | Food & Wine • 2011 "I saw some of the tools and ma- chines, and I knew that you have to be a pretty serious woodworker to have some of those items," Dean said. So he poked his head in and intro- duced himself to Booth. It's hard to imagine more of a chance encounter. Dean, a bank executive who was returning to his hometown of Fay- etteville to become Wachovia's market president for the area, was only in the neighborhood because he was house hunting nearby. Turned out the house had already been sold, but it certainly wasn't a wast- ed trip. In the eight years since that day, Booth and Dean have forged a friend- ship that, at its core, revolves around the art of furniture making. And, in reference to the woodwork Booth and Dean strive to produce, terming it "art" is appropriate. We're not talking about your everyday, utilitarian furniture. (IKEA has the world covered in that de- partment.) We're not even talking about the carefully-designed and well-craſted furniture North Carolina has had a rep- utation for producing. Hearken back to a time when furni- ture, and the craſtsmanship that went into a finished piece, may have been

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