Wilbur Fuller

Wilbur Fuller took to woodwork at a young age.  When he was 16, from the instructions in a magazine, he made a desk which still stands in the corner of his small farmhouse in western Michigan.  In 1954, his cousin Walter, who engineered the Gibson amplifier in nearby Kalamazoo, told Wilbur of an opening in the company’s wood shop. Wilbur was assigned to flattop guitar design and went on to create the Kalamazoo Award model of guitars.  Wilbur also proudly displayed a list of all the cars he went through getting to and from work.  He still had the car he bought before his retirement in 1980 when he passed away at the age of 91 in 2009.