Born in 1920 in Uelen, Siberia, James Krenov was one of the most celebrated cabinetmakers of his era. His writing on craftsmanship still informs the field. The son of adventurous Russian elites that fled St. Petersburg during the Russian Revolution, Krenov spent his early life in far flung and often remote parts of the world. He was born at a small outpost on the Bering Strait, where his mother had accepted a position as the settlement’s teacher. The family later relocated to an Alaskan village via Shanghai and Seattle, where his parents worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs for several years before he and his mother ultimately settled in Seattle. A casual carver of toys since childhood, Krenov became interested in sailing and ship-building while living in Seattle. In 1947, he relocated to Sweden, where he worked in a factory until enrolling in famed furniture maker Carl Malmsten’s cabinetry school. Upon completing the program, Krenov opened a shop of his own and taught classes at Malmsten’s school. He soon gained a following and began lecturing around the world. In 1968, he accepted a brief teaching appointment at the Rochester Institute of Technology’s School for American Craftsmen, returning again in 1973 and 1974 as a guest professor. He continued to lecture widely throughout his career and built enduring ties to the Mendocino Woodworkers Association. This partnership evolved into a cabinetmaking program at the College of the Redwoods in Fort Bragg, helmed by Krenov. He began to write on cabinetmaking in the 1970s, and ultimately published five books. His first, A Cabinetmaker’s Notebook, is considered essential reading for many woodworkers and craft scholars. Celebrated for his masterful pursuit of the "quiet object in unquiet times,” Krenov was selected for an oral history interview by the Smithsonian for the Archives of American Art in 2004 and elected a Fellow of the American Craft Council in 2000. Though he lost his sight in the early 2000s, he continued working by touch until his death in 2009. The Krenov Foundation was founded in his honor in 2014.