Winter 2023
recalls.That decision, most likely made on a boy- hood whim, charted the course that brought him to Carmel and to the lifelong vocation he clearly adores. “When I first came to the U.S., I worked for a friend of one of my jewelry teachers in Beverly Hills,” Kocek recalls. “I heard a man was looking for a jeweler in Carmel, so I took a Greyhound bus here.The town reminded me of Switzerland.” At the time, Kocek didn’t speak English and didn’t own a car. But he did know how to make jewelry and he was hired at the princely sum of $12.50 an hour.“That was good money in the 1970s,” he jokes. He attended English classes at Monterey High and soon opened his own shop. “I was a one man show,” Kocek says, “and then hired a salesperson. I was new to business; she was new to jewelry sales.We both started at zero.” Later, he was offered the empty storefront across San (Left) Kocek was recognized by the Chamber of Commerce this year for 50 years of membership. (Right) In Bali in 2001, teach- ing local jewelers to work in 18k gold, using antiquated tools similar to those he worked with as a young man in Turkey. 136 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 2 3 In 1987, Kocek designed a cross for Pope John Paul II. He was granted a personal audience with the pontiff at the Vatican, and presented him with the cross. Photos: Courtesy of Kocek Jewelers, Inc.
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