David Lindquist

David Lindquist came to graduate school at Duke University, quickly finding political science great fun, but restoring old houses and buying and selling antiques even more fun.  While researching his dissertation in Bonn, West Germany, he continually shipped his "finds" in the weekly flea market back to Durham.  By 1975 he had founded his first full time antiques business, Tranquil Corners; had acquired his major competitor (the venerable Whitehall Shop) in 1980; and had begun restoration of the historic Villa Tempesta (Villa Teo to "newcomers") by 1990.  He and his daughter Elizabeth operate Whitehall Antiques in the restored Chapel Hill landmark, participate in fifteen major charity antiques shows across the nation, travel regularly to England and France to buy for the business, conduct major educational seminars annually, and regularly assist area charities in fund raising events. Several of Lindquist's seven books in the field of antique furniture have been viewed as groundbreaking endeavors, establishing empirical measures of quality and condition for price guides and bringing national attention to the long neglected and misunderstood field of the American Colonial Revival era.

Succeeding community and national projects for Lindquist included the Durham Art Guild Board (creating their first business underwriting program to fund art shows), serving two terms on the Vestry of The Chapel of the Cross (also chairing the one person committee to air condition the church—successful),  serving as president of The National Association Of Dealers In Antiques (creating its Cooper Hewitt scholarship endowment fund), spearheading a gala fundraising dinner at The Villa for Evening With Friends (raising funds for area AIDS programs), helping raise the Dr. John Bartlett Endowment at Duke University to assist those living with AIDS, and for fourteen years serving on the board and chairing the board of The Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, which has been a great passion for Lindquist .