When Susan Kuhn Purnell was a girl of 12 helping in the family’s jewelry store, her first job was fashioning bows.

The memory is still clear and she laughs when she talks about it, but she didn’t grow up to be a master bower.

“Actually, I’m not the best at that. We have some really good bow-makers here,” said the third-generation owner of the store, a Salisbury institution celebrating 170 years in business this year.

Customers enjoyed a sale and another one is coming in time for Christmas.

Purnell, who earned a teaching degree in college, wasn’t immediately interested in the family business. She worked in New York City, then returned  to Salisbury in 1995.

“My father ran it until I got back. He died seven years later. They called him Diamond Jack,” she said.

Her grandfather, John A. Kuhn, bought it in 1923 from a Mr. Fisher, his boss.

“He came here from Ohio where he worked in a jewelry store. He worked for him for a while then he was able to buy the business,” Purnell said.

Since the 1990s, when she returned, there have been considerable changes.

“Of course there were no computers at that time. We stayed Downtown, at our original location Downtown, until three years ago when they tore up the streets and sidewalks and nobody was coming into our store.

“We moved to Seagull Square as a temporary location but we’ve been so busy that this is our new location now,” said Purnell, a graduate gemologist from the Gemological Institute of America.

The move was to 1306 South Salisbury Blvd., Suite 192, a store more than twice the size of the original one.

“It’s much brighter with more sunlight and it’s cheerier. The old shop was beautiful and classic but this shop is a mix. We brought all our old cases and interspersed contemporary giftware.

“We moved, I think, totally reacting to the loss of business Downtown. Nobody could get there. Right after we moved, Covid started so it was a little bit scary for a while. I came in every day. We called our customers. We tried to keep the cash flowing. We are selling something that should last forever,” said Purnell, a sentimentalist who wears her mother’s engagement ring and her father’s Rolex.

“We have parking right in front and it’s free parking. In 10 steps you’re inside our store. That is such a huge thing, accessibility and visibility on Route 13.

“We are a big engagement ring  jewelry store. Now we are selling lab-grown diamonds. The diamond --  chemically, optically, physically -- is the same carbon that crystallizes and they are less expensive, but there are still people who want the earth-grown diamond for the rarity of it. Lab-grown diamonds are not that rare. If you prefer it from the mine, if you want it to come out of the lab, we have both and they look exactly the same,” she explained.

Business has been good, not only with engagement ring sales but diamond earrings and bracelets as well as more affordable items.

“We try to cater to every pocketbook. We have plenty of items in the $100 to $300 range. We have beautiful giftware, wedding gift ideas, plates, items for porcelain and weddings and collectors,” she said.

Also admired are paintings, notecards and gifts by local artist Abbi Custis that Purnell described as whimsical, contemporary and colorful.

Purnell, who will celebrate her 70th birthday this year, said there isn’t another generation in the family being groomed to continue running the business.

“I have a manager, Alan Merritt, who could take over in a minute,” she said, adding there are two full-time and six part-time employees.

“But even though I am turning 70, I figure I have 20 years left,” said Purnell, who is active in the community, with positions with the local Community Foundation, Coastal Hospice, Urban Salisbury and Girl Scouts of America.

A recipient of the Salisbury Chamber of Commerce Business Woman of the Year award and Maryland Top 100 business owner distinction, she enjoys kayaking on the Wicomico River, playing with her grandchildren on the beach in Ocean City and singing soprano in the choir at Trinity United Methodist Church -- as well as greeting customers and showing them fine jewelry.

“Retail is not easy. There is buying, organizing, dealing with customers but I am dealing with them at the most important part of their lives. That’s the greatest part of my job, when they are getting engaged, they are having a wedding, they are having a birthday or an anniversary. These are momentous occasions and it is a real honor,” she said.

“It’s very special and I love when somebody comes to me and says, ‘My grandfather bought his ring from you and my father bought his ring from you and now I am buying my ring here. They all said, ‘You have to go to Kuhn’s.’”