Dave Dawson Obituary: Charleston, SC, Lighting Industry Mourns Co-Founder of The Urban Electric Co.
The design and interiors community is remembering Dave Dawson this week, following news of his passing shared by close friends and colleagues in the industry.
Dawson, who built The Urban Electric Co. alongside his wife Jen, was widely known not just for the lighting company he helped shape, but for the way he treated the people around him.
The tribute came from James Thomas Interiors, a design firm that had known Dawson for years. In a heartfelt post shared across Instagram and Facebook, the firm described him as someone with a rare gift for making everyone around him feel valued.
They wrote that together with Jen, he built an extraordinary company, but more importantly, he built a culture of kindness.
A Legacy Built on Relationships
According to those who worked with him, Dawson’s impact went well beyond the products his company produced. The Urban Electric Co. has become a respected name in the lighting world, and many designers who partnered with the brand say the relationships they built extended into genuine friendship.
James Thomas Interiors noted that they were grateful not only for the time they shared with Dawson personally, but for the friendships they found within the wider Urban Electric family that he helped shape.
The comments that followed the tribute echoed that sentiment. Fellow designers and industry peers flooded the post with messages calling him one in a million and a special human being.
Several people who had spent time with Dawson personally, including a shared trip to the Cotswolds recalled by designer Allison Elebash, described him as someone who brought joy to everyone he met and had a natural gift for connecting people. Others called him uncommonly talented, kind, and generous.
Remembered for Vision and Character
Those paying tribute made clear that Dawson’s reputation in the design world rested on two things at once, his creative vision and his character.
He was admired for the aesthetic direction he brought to Urban Electric’s lighting, pieces that will continue to appear in homes designed by clients across the industry for years to come. At the same time, colleagues emphasized that his greater legacy was personal rather than professional, rooted in the example he set for how to treat people.
James Thomas Interiors closed its tribute by inviting the community to raise a glass to Dawson this past weekend, calling him one of the very best.
The outpouring of comments, more than a hundred combined across platforms, suggests the sentiment was widely shared among designers, antique dealers, and studio owners who crossed paths with him over the years.
No additional details about the circumstances of his passing or funeral arrangements have been made public at this time. The Urban Electric Co. and the Dawson family have not yet issued a separate statement beyond the tributes shared by friends in the design community.
