The clock collector

Published 3:11 pm Thursday, December 26, 2013

Hudson repairs, restores and even builds clocks in a workshop at his home. (Photography by Jon Goering)

Hudson repairs, restores and even builds clocks in a workshop at his home. (Photography by Jon Goering)

Back in the 1950s, Bob Hudson’s father gave him a clock, and not just any ordinary timepiece, but a genuine 100-year-old Seth Thomas model made by perhaps the most famous clockmaker in the United States.

“My dad got it when the post office changed from the old analog clocks to digital timekeeping,” recalled the 84-year-old Shelby County resident. “It’s just a wall clock. It doesn’t chime or anything. It simply tells time, but it is a very accurate instrument, and that’s all I ask it to do.”

That special but unassuming gift began a lifelong love of anything that tells time. Hudson’s collection includes clocks from Germany, France, Great Britain, China and yes even Texas, all are places which at one time or another he and his wife Barbara called home during his long Air Force career.

Read more about Bob Hudson in the January issue of Shelby Living. Find your copy here.