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Harold C. Dotson Sr. retired from the Air Force in 1974 as a command pilot with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He and his wife, Lillian, had visited Socorro, New Mexico with his brother, Carl and family, and loved the area. Harold’s favorite saying was “I just drove until I couldn’t see the air I was breathing anymore.” So naturally they moved here. He tried the whole retirement thing and couldn’t stand being idle. About that time Indian jewelry was in great demand and many of Harold’s Air Force friends were getting the Dotson’s to supply them with the fashionable jewelry.
Seeing that demand opened Harold’s eyes to a whole new world of possibilities, and he soon had some of the best silversmiths in the southwest working out of his basement, making traditional and custom Southwestern jewelry. In no time he had more than enough to sati sfy his friends, so he and his wife took their jewelry on the road and marketed it in the eastern states. In 1975, Harold discovered a fresh-water lake on one of these marketing trips in which were found unusual pink mother-of-pearl shells. The iridescence and radiance of these shells caught Harold’s eye and he immediately arranged for divers to procure a large supply.
With this discovery, the Dotson’s turned their business from traditional and custom southwestern jewelry to custom made modern jewelry, the sterling silver both complementing and enhancing the pink mother-of-pearl. The first finished pieces were produced just before Christmas of 1975. The business was expanding so rapidly that the Dotson’s had to seek new quarters for the business, as word of mouth made their jewelry a much sought after commodity. In 1976 they moved to t he original section of the abandoned Eagle-Pitcher building, and officially became the company known today as “Raychester”, which was a combination of Harold and Lillian’s middle names. The registered trademark is a “C” with six rays appropriately radiating from the “C” as a symbol of the beautiful jewelry they produce.
In November 1977, they received an invitation from the board of Creative Merchandising and Publishing, Inc. to inspect the pink mother-of-pearl high fashion jewelry. The board selected nine of the items to go in over 22,000,000 catalogues which were distributed in over 400 outlet stores across the United States. During this pink mother-of-pearl boom in 1978, the Dotson’s moved their maturing business to a
new factory location that they had specially built
for that purpose. Around this time, they also saw a lack of production opportunities for the small to medium sized designers who needed to have quality, timely and beautifully duplicated pieces. So they expanded their operations and contracted with other designers and artists all over the United States and Canada to manufacture jewelry to their exact specifications.
Since 1978, Raychester has grown and evolved with the changing times. The market for pink mother-of-pearl has fallen off, so we have moved on to producing more modern pieces. We now have clients nationwide ranging from well known Oscar winning movie stars and Grammy winning singers to the small town mom and pop stores. We are a third generation company which continues to excel at quality and precision craftsmanship.
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