Forty years ago Antonio “Tony” Ramos chose to build a small building in Esmond, Rhode Island in which to develop his talent and pursue a career as a stone carver. Today out of that same building and along with a major subsidiary, Georgia Stone Industries, Inc. he operates 16 quarries throughout the eastern United States.

Ramos’ success story is the classic immigrant’s search for the American dream. He worked with his hands and with stone, as a very young boy in Portugal. When he was just seventeen years old he left his home in Portugal and came to America where he used his ‘marble boy’ skills to earn money and create a new life for himself.

As a sculptor and stone worker Ramos possesses that innate gift of understanding the properties and capabilities within a natural stone block. This talent allowed him from his earliest years to easily master the production of small stone projects and move quickly to larger ones; culminating with the quarrying and fabrication of the National World War II Memorial on the Mall in Washington D.C.

In 2005 Ramos turned his attention completely over to quarrying granite blocks.