Simon Pearce
Glassmaker

Celebrated for the beauty and simplicity of his creations in hand-blown glass, Simon Pearce — whose dyslexia was diagnosed at 42, along with his son’s — noted that when he was a child, “The teacher told my parents that I’d never be able to do anything but light the fire and plant trees.”

Pearce’s company in Quechee, Vermont has grown to include workshops, retail stores and restaurants in addition to the hundreds of retailers selling the objects he produces. He has strong convictions about children with any kind of disability:

“The child is absolutely perfect the way he is, however he is,” Pearce says, “and that is what I grew up with, a belief in myself as a human being.”