Gary Vaughan has been woodworking in the neighborhood for almost 60 years

About 60 years ago, 12-year-old Gary Vaughan took a woodworking shop while he was a student at T.C. Marsh Middle School. After completing his first project, a pair of bookends that is still in his possession, Vaughan was hooked. He went home to his dad’s Shopsmith and started building. Over the years, Vaughan taught himself woodworking by reading magazines and trying out new projects. His repertoire has expanded beyond the bookends and chessboard he made as a child.

During his more than 30-year-long career as a homebuilder and remodeling contractor in the North Dallas area, Vaughan kept up his passion for woodworking. He would build pieces for his clients, including bookshelves, secretaries and tables.

Now, at 72 years old, Vaughan is continuing to share his talent and knowledge with the community.

Since his retirement, Vaughan has been more limited by the size of his shop, a 200-square-foot structure he built himself in his backyard near the Northaven Trail. In one corner of the  workspace sits a pile of almost every kind of wood one could imagine. Walnut planks are stacked on top of lacewood, sapele, bloodwood, cherry wood, holly and two types of maple.

Vaughan is typically working on multiple projects at a time. A half-built chair stands across from a chessboard waiting to be varnished. A layer of epoxy resin is setting in one of Vaughan’s charcuterie boards next to boxes featuring a longhorn or mustang logo.

“Anything out of wood, I pretty much make,” he says.

Vaughan was recently elected president of the North Texas Woodworkers Association, which he has belonged to for two years. As part of the NTWA’s February build challenge, Vaughan was busy building boxes for the Beads of Courage program. Each box is given to a child dealing with cancer or other serious illnesses. Each time they go through an illness-related experience, the children are given a colorful bead that they keep in the donated boxes.

“There’s a satisfaction in building a box and knowing it’s going to be used,” Vaughan says.

Vaughan is still building homes, but no longer for his former company, the Vaughan Group. For the past 16 years, he has been part of Highland Park United Methodist Church’s “Carpenters for Christ.” The group of volunteers meets every Wednesday and Saturday to build homes for Habitat for Humanity. The group recently broke ground on its 128th home.

Vaughan is not the only artist in his family. His wife, Martha, works with glass, jewelry and pottery. During the last weekend of April, the Vaughans will join 26 other artists as part of the North Dallas Artist Studio Tour. Tour participants will be able to see the Vaughans’ studios and purchase some of their work.

Martha also helped her husband discover his other passion: teaching. While taking a class at the Craft Guild of Dallas about a year ago, she learned from the director that the guild was looking to start a woodworking department. After being contacted by them, Vaughan agreed to help, even donating some of his personal equipment to the guild. He now teaches five classes a week.

“What keeps me coming back is my love for it. I started teaching because I do enjoy woodworking, and I really enjoy teaching it to other people,” he says.

As a teacher, Vaughan clearly takes pride in his students. He does his best to take a photo of every student along with their first finished product, which is typically a charcuterie board.

Though Vaughan still takes commissions, he does so simply because he enjoys the process of woodworking.

“If it doesn’t sell, no big deal. I’m still enjoying making it,” he says. “The only reason that I sell them is so that I can make more. I’m pretty much hooked on it.”