Gregg Craft’s dad was a jack-of-all trades.
A Navy veteran, Craft’s dad, Wayne, started his monument company, Everlasting Granite and Marble on Monte Sano Avenue, after seeing his parents’ graves in Augusta’s West View Cemetery without a headstone.
He wanted to put a remembrance there.
“In the early 80s, they wanted to charge the same price as we do today,” said Craft, who took over from his dad in 2004. Wayne Craft died in 2008. “My dad said, ‘I can do it better anyway.’”
Wayne Craft went to Elberton, Ga., where he did a six-month apprenticeship and soon after opened his business. His final test was a large sculpture that is still housed inside the business.
Gregg practically grew up in the business. He helped stencil letters when he was about 7.
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“He wouldn’t let me do any sandblasting until I was about 14 or 15,” he said.
Gregg did work for a couple of other companies before joining his dad full-time, but that was the way his father wanted it. He wanted Gregg to get the experience of working for someone else first, Gregg said.
Gregg knows the technique of sandblasting. He’s got two large pieces of machinery in the back of the shop. The newer machinery uses CAD technology and can engrave more elaborate monuments at no extra cost. As long as it can fit on the marker, Gregg said he can make it work.
He does a lot of the headstones at Westover Memorial Park, and many of the newer headstones have more details. They have Bible verses or poems. Some even have photographs. While he does the sandblasting work, any etchings are outsourced to someone in Elberton.
Sandblasting, he said, is a dying art. Few people do it anymore.
While he’s worked at Everlasting Granite and Marble much of his life, the job can sometimes get to him. He and his wife, Vanessa, who run the business together deal with people under less-than-ideal situations.
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“Young kids are the worst,” he said. “They hit me like a jackhammer.”
He remembers doing one for a little boy whose dream was to be an astronaut. For his Make a Wish, he went to the Kennedy Space Center, and when he died, they put a rocket on the gravestone and a picture of him in the cockpit.
The day he put the marker at the child’s grave, there was a crowd of friends and family members. He said it was an emotional day, but people were so pleased with the work.
Headstones are a bulk of their business, but they’ve done other projects.
His father created the floating marble sphere for Fort Discovery on Riverwalk, and he has created the granite bases for plaques describing outdoor artwork near the Augusta Canal.
They also sandblasted memorial bricks for Dollywood and Aiken High School. They’ve also made signs for businesses and places of worship.
One of the more unique requests was for someone who owned a house at the lake and had a giant compass on their patio. The individual wanted the letters for the directions sandblasted into the patio as well.
The Crafts said they do enjoy meeting the people, and they always tell their customers that if they have to come back to their business, they hope it’s just to say “hello” and not because they need their services again.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the Features Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com
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