It started with Edward Moulthrop, who taught architecture and physics at Tech in the 1940s and was a self-taught wood turner. His son, Philip Moulthrop, a Marietta, Ga., attorney, also caught the passion. Philip's son, Matt Moulthrop, MBA 04, inherited the artistic talent and is now crafting his own turned-wood bowls that are being sold around the country.

Edward Moulthrop taught at Tech before moving on to private practice as an Atlanta architect. In his spare time, he painted watercolors and sculpted — until he discovered wood turning. Some of his most famous bowls, turned on a lathe with a tool drawn against the wood, reached up to 40 inches in diameter and four feet tall.

"It can be said that each bowl already exists in the trunk of the tree and one's job is simply to uncover it and somehow chip away the excess wood, much as you would chip away the surrounding stone to uncover a perfect fossil entombed in the stone," Edward Moulthrop once said.

At the time of his death in 2003 at age 87, he was nationally renown as a pioneer and inspiration to others, including his son.

Philip Moulthrop began turning wood under his father's tutelage in the late 1970s. Within six months, he had set up his own basement studio and began taking a day off work here and there to fine-tune his craft. While his following grew, he worked part time over the next eight years before leaving the courtroom behind completely.

Like his father, Philip Moulthrop has bowls displayed in prominent collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., and the Museum of Design in New York City. His work also is profiled in a book, "The White House Collection of American Crafts."

Depending on their size, Philip Moulthrop's bowls can take between two and eight months to complete. For a particularly large piece, he will first sketch the design he's looking for on paper or a big chalkboard he keeps in his studio. The completion includes a two-part polymer finish that makes the stunning pieces shine. Because of the curing and drying of the wood and the finishing process, he can work on several pieces at once. He turns out about 150 bowls a year.

Philip's son, Matt, was inspired by his grandfather in many ways, including his education.

"Some of the greatest friends that my grandfather made were from Georgia Tech," Matt says. "He always wanted one of his grandchildren to go to Tech." Matt is the only one of the five Moulthrop grandchildren to attend the Institute and pick up his grandfather's craft, which he began learning as a child.

"He pioneered the wood-turning market in North America," Matt says. "He taught me everything I needed to know. I ended up working for him for almost 10 years."

Calling his dad the most famous living wood turner, Matt says he learned finishing details and business skills from Philip Moulthrop and that they worked together to complete some of Edward Moulthrop's pieces when he became too ill to go into his studio.

The Edward Moulthrop bowl given to the College of Management was created in 2000. He had set it aside specifically to go to Tech after his death. The Philip Moulthrop bowl now housed at the College of Management was completed in 2002. Matt Moulthrop currently is at work on a bowl that he plans to set next to those of his father and grandfather at Georgia Tech.

©2005 Georgia Tech Alumni Association