david beach

Charlottesville, VA | PathNorth member since 2021

David is a retired entrepreneur, having run National Optronics, Inc., a manufacturer of machinery used in fabricating eyeglass lenses, for 25 years. Beginning his career at Arthur Andersen & Co. and later with a client, he returned to Charlottesville, VA, where he had received a M.B.A. from the Darden School at the Univ. of Virginia. He soon acquired a patent for a machine designed to fit at-the-time-novel Polycarbonate lenses into frames and began to manufacture it. It is said that God watches over babies and fools, and he qualified as both for starting a precision equipment operation from scratch, but fate smiled on Optronics with the emergence of the one-hour eyeglass stores, which the machine was perfectly suited to.  The company continued to grow over the years and was purchased by an industry giant who wanted the technology. 

Since selling Optronics, David has continued a history of philanthropy in the Charlottesville community by serving on a series of boards and committees.  His primary associations at present are with the Boys and Girls Club and the World Federation of Youth Clubs.

Prior to his M.B.A., David received a B.A. from S.M.U. He is also a C.P.A.  He and his wife, Carolyn, each have two children.