Greg Garrett, one of the most visible members and instructors for the National Plasterers Council, died suddenly August 20, two weeks before his 64th birthday.
Garrett spent much of his career as one of the National Plasterers Council’s most active volunteers and advocates. He played a key role in establishing and guiding the organization’s National Pool Industry Research Center at California State Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo. On his own and with these organizations, Garrett performed research on etching deterioration, calcium nodules, discoloration and ways to preserve interior finishes.
He dedicated so much time fielding questions from professionals and consumers alike, that he was eventually hired by the organization part-time as director of technical services. He held that position from 2015 to 2017. Most recently, he served on the NPC board of directors.
“The entire NPC family mourns the loss of this larger-than-life man who dedicated his career to the swimming pool industry, was a true industry unifier, and leaves behind a magnificent legacy,” the organization said in a press release. “The NPC will continue to educate the industry ... but it won’t be the same without Greg.”
Garrett also served on various technical committees for the Association of Pool & Spa Professionals (now PHTA) and other organizations, weighing in on numerous industry standards.
His schedule was generously populated with instructing engagements. He was well- known for NPC’s most popular course, which covers pool start-up procedures for preserving plaster and other cementitious interior pool/spa finishes. “Through research and testing, Greg was instrumental in the development of the National Plasterers Council’s Start-Up Certification program,” the group said.
For his contributions to the industry, the Association of Pool & Spa Professionals named him an APSP fellow last year.
Also in 2018, he ventured further into the educational realm when he partnered with industry chemistry expert Robert Lowry to form the Pool Chemistry Training Institute.
Gregory Clay Garrett was born Sept. 3, 1955 in Puerto Rico, while his father was serving in the Army. As a child, he lived in various places, including Mississippi, France and Germany.
This year marked a half century since Garrett entered the industry as a teen. After his father finished his military service, the family settled in Sierra Vista, Ariz., and the elder Garrett started a pool company.
When he came of age, Greg Garrett himself joined the Army, serving a portion of his time in Korea, during the Korean conflict. Upon returning, he earned a Bachelors in Political Science from Arizona State University.
After college, he joined pool-building powerhouse Shasta Pools, where he served as a project manager, among other roles.
While there, he became known in the area as a surface specialist. “He took care of [Shasta’s] problems with their customers on their interior finishes and then he got more and more involved on the materials side,” said Jay Eaton, president of Phoenix-based Cal Plastering and a close friend of Garrett’s. “Then he did research there on calcium nodules.”
Before the NPC took off, local plasterers had formed the Arizona Plaster Council, in which Garrett was a driving force, Eaton said. The group built test pools of their own to perform research on pool surfaces.
Garrett left Shasta to work for local materials supplier Mason Mart before starting his own company, Applied Materials Technologies, which offered plastering, consulting and remedial services, as well as producing some finish materials, additives and related products.
As a founding member of the National Plasterers Council, Garrett quickly took on a high profile. “His true passion was definitely the materials side, and the NPC was where he found his calling,” Eaton said. “It was like the perfect storm for him.”
At the National Pool Industry Research Center at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Garrett worked with others to develop and implement testing protocol on a variety of subjects. Garrett did have his professional detractors, as a leading voice on controversial subjects such as the causes of spot etching.
When the NPC began its start-up certification program, he was the primary instructor. “He did this because he loved it, and he wanted people to learn,” Eaton said.
The bulk of Garrett’s study and research centered around the relationship between materials and water quality, causing him to cross over into the chemistry realm and serve on APSP’s Recreational Water Quality Committee.
His focus on the two disciplines changed how many plasterers approached their work, said Lee Valenzuela, NPC chairman and president of New Image Pool Interiors in Clovis, Calif.
“He was instrumental in making me a better business person,” he said. “The way I look at pools and water chemistry and the effects that water chemistry has on plaster ... I definitely got to see it in a whole new light. In the past, plasterers ... didn’t really know about water chemistry.”
In addition to a seemingly photographic memory that allowed him to recite almost verbatim language from a given code, standard or training manual, complete with the clause or page-number citation, associates remember him for a willingness to help. His son Shawn saw this firsthand.
“He really tried to help the pool industry in whatever way he could,” said Shawn Garrett. “Every time I would go say hi to him, he was helping someone new ... It was really exciting to see how much he really loved it and how much he devoted his life to helping others.”
