AHFA honors Gat Caperton

The American Home Furnishings Alliance has bestowed its 55th annual Distinguished Service Award to furniture manufacturer and environmentalist William Gaston “Gat” Caperton IV, CEO of Gat Creek in Berkeley Springs, W.Va. The award is presented to an industry executive selected for their contribution to the home furnishings industry, the AHFA, and their local community.

“[Caperton] is a benevolent and humble man who cares deeply about the people in his organization and takes tremendous pride in the community where he has built his factory,” Farooq Kathwari, chairman, CEO and president of Ethan Allen, said at the AHFA’s annual meeting and CEO conference in Sea Island, Ga.

“A generous sponsor of education and youth programs in his district, he is the go-to community trailblazer when leadership or unbridled enthusiasm is needed.”

Prior to starting Gat Creek in 1996, a shop featured in the June 2016 issue of Woodshop News, Caperton graduated Davidson College in N.C. with a degree in economics and went to work for a real estate mogul in Chicago while working on an M.B.A. at the University of Chicago. After moving back to his home state, he purchased the former Tom Seely Furniture and turned it into a successful enterprise of his own, naming it after a creek that he used to play in as a child. The company operates out of a 90,000-sq.-ft. facility with over 100 employees.

Caperton served as chair of AHFA’s Board of Directors in 2019, received the organization’s Sage Award for environmental excellence in 2012, and helped found and serves on its board of the Sustainable Furnishings Council. He also served on the boards of the Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation and West Virginia Nature Conservancy, and was chair of the board of directors of the Natural Capital Investment Fund, a $45 million fund providing flexible financing to small and emerging natural resource-based businesses primarily located in the Appalachian region.

Based in High Point, N.C., the AHFA is a trade association serving the U.S. residential furniture industry on home furniture matters related to health, safety, environmental, fashion and business information. For more, visit ahfa.us.

This article was originally published in the February 2023 issue.