John Robert Latendresse, 74, founder of Tennessee Shell Company and American Pearl Company, and an integral contributor to GIA’s new Pearls Course and Gems & Gemology, died July 23 at his home in Camden, Tennessee, from lung cancer.

Click to view a video of John talking about his mentor, Morris Hanauer.

Apart from being a pioneer in aspects of both the American and Asian pearl industries, Latendresse played an important role in the creation of GIA’s award-winning Pearls Course.

In 1998, Latendresse hosted a team of editorial and video personnel from GIA’s Course Development department for four days at his freshwater cultured pearl farm near Camden, Tennessee. Through Latendresse’s generosity and passion for his craft, the team acquired valuable, first-hand information about American freshwater cultured pearls, video footage and still photos for GIA’s new Pearls Course. Latendresse shared his 50-year pearl industry perspective with the team and took them on a tour of the river where the pearls are produced. Latendresse and his guests rolled up their sleeves and together they experienced pearl farming.

Today, American Pearl Company is the only producer of freshwater cultured pearls in the United States.

Latendresse also participated in GIA’s pearl trade review, along with other pearl industry experts such as Frank Mastoloni and Nicholas Paspaley. His critiques of many different types of pearls helped develop GIA’s pearl grading system.

"We spent hours reviewing GIA’s new Pearls Course material and explaining the growing process and the enhancement process that most pearls are exposed to," said Latendresse’s daughter Gina, a graduate gemologist and president of American Pearl Company.

"It’s incredible to find somebody with a half century of perspective and he was always there to give us that perspective," said Wendy Graham, Ph.D., former director of GIA Course Development. "Without the help of people who have been in the industry for years, there just isn’t the depth of knowledge that is required to give students and the trade insight about the industry."

In addition, Latendresse contributed many fancy-shaped pearls for use in GIA’s Pearl Grading Extension classes and many materials to GIA’s library. He also cowrote an article with past partner James L. Sweaney of American Pearl Creations in Camden, Tennessee, for G&G in 1984.

"John Latendresse was a consummate professional," said G&G editor Alice Keller. "His 1984 G&G article on natural freshwater pearls of North America is still a classic. I feel privileged to have known and worked with him."

GIA Chairman of the Board Richard T. Liddicoat, G.G., said, "John played a pioneering role in certain aspects of the freshwater cultured pearl industry not only in America but in Asia as well. He really was the founder of the cultured pearl industry in America. I considered John a friend and regarded him stalwart in the American jewelry industry."

Latendresse’s Fascinating Career

Latendresse became involved in the pearling industry in 1954 when he founded Tennessee Shell Company, a primary supplier of shell used by pearl farmers around the world to form the core of most cultured pearls.

By 1968, Japanese pearl farmers bought shell from seven U.S. shell suppliers for 26,000 tons of the shells per year to produce their akoya pearls. According to Latendresse, up to 70% of those shells were purchased from Tennessee Shell Company.

In a 1998 interview with GIA Course Development personnel, Latendresse recalled what led to his success in the shell business:

"It was a matter of integrity. I would send [the Japanese pearl farmers] a shell sample and then I’d make the shipment the same as the sample—not to enhance the sample and then send a shipment of a different quality. The shipment would be the same or better and I gained business little by little. It took me less than five years to gain 70% of the market. Being able to get along with people on the river [in Tennessee] was also very important, along with working hours and hours—sometimes 20 hours a day. I just kept pushing to make it a large business."

Determination was also a factor that contributed to Latendresse’s success in the American freshwater cultured pearl industry, according to Graham.

After deciding in 1963 that he wanted to culture freshwater pearls in America, Latendresse took 20 years and several million dollars to test hundreds of bodies of water in the United States for the right chemistry to produce freshwater cultured pearls, Graham said. Latendresse found that the Tennessee River, several miles from his home in Camden, had the perfect chemistry combination for culturing freshwater pearls.

"It’s incredible that he persevered for 20 years—how many people would have done that?" Graham pondered. "As he told me, the industry was laughing at him. But he finally did it and couldn’t have without an incredible amount of determination. He really put his heart and soul into his work."

Latendresse also received encouragement to produce American freshwater cultured pearls from his wife Chessy, a graduate gemologist, whom he met in Japan. When Latendresse decided to produce cultured pearls in America, Chessy would translate books written in Japanese that described patented Japanese akoya culturing techniques. The Latendresses wanted to use the freshwater mussels John was very familiar with, but found the Japanese culturing techniques did not work in this type of mollusk.

Finally, Latendresse developed his own technique and produced his first commercial freshwater cultured pearl harvest in 1987. Unlike its white, round, Japanese saltwater counterpart, the American freshwater cultured pearl comes in many fancy shapes and in an array of colors.

Latendresse’s daughters Gina and Renee, vice president of American Pearl Company, plan to continue their father’s work developing freshwater cultured pearls in distinctive shapes and colors, and making his vision a reality.

"My father’s dream was for the southeastern United States to be a pearl culturing center," Gina said. "His final project was to expand pearl culturing in this country. Our family has planned to sell pearl culturing technology under the direction of my father’s dream and outline."

Another project Latendresse was very excited about, and that Gina plans to continue, was to research natural pearls and their origins as well as cultured pearls and their origins, and also the complex enhancement procedures and long term effects of such processes.

"I have been on a mission since I returned from Los Angeles and my GIA studies in 1991," Gina said. "I have been collecting pearls, cultured pearls, simulants, and mollusks from around the world for our research. I have dissected many pearls and studied their growth, enhancements and appearance. My sister and I will continue this forever, since the market is changing and its enhancement procedures are becoming more complex."

Please click here for a Quick Time video tribute to the late John Robert Latendresse