Our Very Own Clock Repair Guy- Don Blue

By Joni Johnson

Our clock in the Manor dining room is working again thanks to Don Blue.  This is his story.  The clock stopped working and was shunted to a side room and replaced with a little clock that was difficult to see.  Luckily, instead of throwing it out, Don was called in.  He replaced the battery and purchased a new movement from L.C. Antiques and had it working again.  Until it stopped a few days later.  With Don’s expertise, it was discovered that the little hand was touching the big hand on occasion and stopping the clock from functioning.  So Don made a few adjustments and the clock is back in its spot, telling us when we have to stop eating.

       The Manor Clock

How did Don become our Clock Repair Person?  These stories often start with some serendipitous event and this was no exception.  Don’s career was as a geologist in the petroleum business.  So his work had nothing to do with clocks.  However, in 1973, he bought a clock in Kenneybunk, Maine, that wasn’t working.  When he returned to Tustin, California, where he lived at the time, he started going to clock repair classes at the local adult school so that he could repair this clock.

    Don’s first clock

              He continued his clock repair education for five years, which included moving to Eagle Rock, California.  Then he started buying and trading clocks and at one point had over 30 clocks.  Some of these beauties still grace his house.  I counted 11, and I think there were a few more.  Many of them were brought back to life by Don’s expertise.  Luckily, with the exception of two clocks, none of them chime, so sanity is still intact in the Blue household.

When he came to RVM about twelve years ago, he teamed up with George Christiansen who had a beautiful little clock repair room on the fifth floor of the Manor.  Both he and George would even make house calls around campus to repair some of the clocks here at the Manor.  After George passed away, Don gave up his fifth floor spot to the computer people because it was almost as easy to work on clocks at his home.  And luckily for us, he still loves doing this. Now Don confines his horological work by replacing watch batteries for residents and making occasional house calls for bulky clocks.

This clock was originally made for the International Time Recording Company, which later became IBM.

This clock originally tolled class starts at the University of Utah Geology Department