A Chat With Lighting Industry Veteran Darrell Line

I recently talked with my colleague Darrell Line, who since 1963 has been employed or retained by some of the top lighting manufacturing, sales, and design firms in the US.

The evaluation of lighting schemes and products has been Darrell's life's work. For over 50 years, he has been engaged in photometrics, calculations, and assessments of lighting systems. He is also considered an authority on hazardous and explosion-proof lighting wares and the techniques employed to achieve them.

My interview started with some easy to answer queries: "Do you have instances where you determine there is too much light for a situation?" He said, "Yes," thugh he did indicate that it was uncommon.

I asked if it was true that the investigations were more labor-intensive back in the day. Darrell recalled with a grimace the exacting math calculations, frequently carried out with a slide rule, and the old GE light meters and lighting actuary tables. All these were part of doing lighting system evaluations back in the 20th century.

Before the bar

Darrell has many times played the role of expert witness in court cases involving lighting products. Lawyers wisely learned to consider his testimony to be fact-based -- it has led to numerous instances of settlements being proffered as a result of his high level of expert testimony defining deficiencies in lighting systems and/or products.

I asked if a court case had ever been made or lost on the strength or importance of information he provided as an expert witness. I wanted to know if his team's efforts had ever resulted in justice for aggrieved parties. He related a story from about a decade back where as he provided the facts in a case before a judge (n this instance a confab among the judge, defense attorneys, and opposing counsel), the case was resolved (in record time) because the opposing counsel couldn't refute or tear apart the facts as Mr. Line laid them out. His acumen is, and was in this case, unassailable.

Another question for him centered on two large-scale jobs -- the lighting of the McCor­mick Place in Chicago or his firm's work done for the Chicago Public schools. He indicated that though the McCormick Place project was a huge building with its own lighting eccentricities, the work done for the school district was a project on a grander scale.

The Bahá'í Temple in Wilmette, Illinois

Bahá'í Temple

I inquired if there was a project he fondly recalled that he was especially proud of, and he detailed his team's work on the lighting of the Bahá'í Temple in Wilmette, Ill. The grand­eur of this beautiful edifice got the professional's touch -- and bear in mind this was done with the tools and best prac­tices that were in place in 1969.

The Temple is a per­ennial attraction as a spot of beauty, serenity, and grace. Darrell and his crew expertly improved those attributes of the aesthetics, earning the satisfaction of project leaders, the sect's building patrons, and the neighbors as well. Even then Darrell was showing a sensitivity for light trespass -- that fact was critical to the Temple's neighbors' acceptance of its unique level of illumination.

There were, and are, too many accomplishments to list with a guy whose career bridges over two centuries. He has been discerning about fact-checking lighting systems, with a rarely seen deftness, since Kennedy was president. His determination has led to better-lit towns, roads, and facilities all over the nation.