Abe is a native Pennsylvanian and the son of a Lutheran minister. His excitement over glass began as a small child. In church, during those seemingly endless sermons, Abe was imprinting his brain with the play of light on the beautiful windows or was busily folding a bulletin into the best airplane.
Abe grew up to become a musician, performing throughout northeastern U.S. before graduating from Philadelphia Musical Academy in 1963. Subsequently, he attained an M.A. in education from William Paterson College and taught music in New Jersey for 32 years. During much of that time he also worked as a glass artist designing and executing over 100 architectural windows. Abe became very adept at imparting specific qualities to glass, i.e. color, shape, refraction, and texture. Application of these techniques to glass dinnerware led to the foundation of Abe’s Plates in 1988 and Abe’s Plates Inc. in 1994.