Longtime employee taking the reins of Valley jewelers

Glen Brown is taking over day-to-day operations of Tracy Jewelers.

Three years ago, when Tracy Jewelers, 106 N. Evergreen Road, celebrated its 60th anniversary, owner Maureen Tracy, then 58, said she was approaching the age when she was starting to think about retirement.

She had hoped another family member or an employee would step up to become the next generation of jewelers.

Longtime employee Brown, 40, starts his new role at the store Wednesday.

“It’s really an exciting thing,” Brown said.

Raised in Spokane Valley, Brown is a graduate of Central Valley High School. While he has 20 years of experience in working with jewelry, he said he had been working in the jewelry department at Fred Meyer 10 years ago when he wanted to find a different job in the retail market.

“It’s was my very first time looking in the paper for a job,” he said.

Over the next four years, Brown will work alongside Tracy – the daughter of the original owner – while he continues studying gemology to ensure a smooth transition.

“I am confident that he is committed to continuing the tradition of pride and integrity that my dad, Patrick Tracy, built as the backbone of Tracy Jewelers,” Tracy said in a news release.

Patrick Tracy and his wife, Norann, opened the store on the northeast corner of Sprague Avenue and Argonne Road in 1950. The two built the business and their family of 10 children over the years until Leo Tracy, Maureen’s brother, purchased the business in 1975. Maureen bought it from Leo in 1993, ushering in the age of computer-aided jewelry design. Patrick Tracy died in 1988.

Brown said there aren’t too many other stores in Spokane that do what Tracy does, but he knows the area is growing and that could change.

Brown, when not working, said he likes spending time with his friends and working in his yard.

“I’m a Valley boy,” he said.