Spotlight on Golight: A trailblazer returns home

In the summer of 1994 Jerry Gohl boarded a plane back to his home state of Nebraska, and in the cargo hold of that 747 sat 18 Golight, model 5149s. Those 18 lights were the first ever Golights produced, but they represented more than a first production run, they carried with them the fate of a fledgling company. In December of 1992 the idea for a remote controlled spotlight was spawned. Jerry parlayed a connection with a design engineer, Al Gebhard, into engineering drawings and eventually a prototype and by late 1993 tooling had been completed. With 18 lights in tow, Jerry set about explaining to buyers across the country what they had been missing prior to the Golight. The task was vast as was the implication; 5000 additional Golights were being manufactured and they needed shelf space.
Since then, Golight has set the industry standard in remote lighting. Our lights are in service around the world lightning the way for everything from MATVs in Afghanistan to snow plows in Alaska. The rest, as they say, is history, or so we thought. Recently a gentleman came strolling into our offices here at Golight. The gentleman, a rancher, had a Golight. It had been in his possession for a number of years, he couldn’t be sure exactly how many. Though his light was still in good working order, he wanted to inquire about upgrading to one of our wireless models. We gladly obliged and when we took a look at the serial number on his original light it was revealed to be one of the original 18 Golights produced. Jerry persuaded the gentleman to part with his light and it is now proudly displayed in a showcase in our foyer.
Over the course of the 16 years that light spent in service, numerous updates have been made to the original Golight, new technologies have been utilized and new models have been added to the line. However, the commitment to quality and durability that Jerry demanded of his first 18 lights has remained unchanged. We can’t go so far as to guarantee that your light will work without issue for 16 years, but we can guarantee that we’ll stand behind your Golight with unparalleled warranties and service.