Vitri-Forms Inc Information

Vitri-Forms, Inc. was founded by Lawrence Nelson in 1961. Nelson was born in Wilmington, VT and trained in Electrical Engineering at Northeastern University in Boston. It was while he was at Northeastern that he encountered glass blowing. During a work-study program at MIT, he was employed as an apprentice glassblower and came to love the work. After completing his apprenticeship, he stayed on at MIT as a professional glassblower for the next 13 years where his expertise allowed him to create glass components for Lincoln Labs as well as one of the world's earliest computers - the room-sized Whirlwind I. In 1961, after over a decade of work in the scientific glassblowing field, Nelson returned to Vermont with his wife Nathalie, also a glassblower. There he founded Vitri-Forms, Inc. in the basement of his house. After three years of building a home business, Nelson rented a floor of a building in downtown Brattleboro and set up shop for the next 35 years. Today, the workshop is located on 60 acres of land owned by Nelson's daughter Heather in Halifax, VT. But although the years have brought changes to the Vitri-Forms company, their commitment to quality has not faltered.