Harold was born in the city of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands.

He learned his trade at the Vakschool Schoonhoven, a four year fulltime school with one full year of apprenticeship.

He earned his 'Master Gold Smith Sign" while he was employed at one of the oldest jewelry stores in Schiedam. (Established in 1895)

At the age of 21 he became the youngest self-employed jeweler in the Netherlands. He opened his store where he did repairs on jewelry, clocks and designed new and custom pieces for his customers.

And then he met Astrid, who is from Nijmegen, also in the Netherlands. A couple of years later their son Laurens was born and named after one of their "American' family members, just as Harold was.

After succesfully running his second store in Mijdrecht for 12 years, they decided to sell it to their employees and moved to the USA.

Harold and his family have been connected to Iowa City since WWII and when you ask him why, you will surely need some of our famous Dutch coffee and cookies, because we have many stories to tell.

Since 2011 they have been in North Liberty and in April of that year Sally Mason did the ribbon-cutting for the opening.

In 2015 they moved to their current location right on Highway 965 along the main road in North Liberty.