Zoe Jackson ’16 | Page Editor
Ever since he can remember, clocksmith Phil Wright has been interested in the way things work.
“When I was a kid, and I tell everybody this, if I got a toy that was mechanical, I tore it apart. I wanted to see how it worked. I was just a gearhead. I liked that kind of stuff,” Wright said.
The third generation carpenter and self-taught horologist, or clockmaker, hails from South Charleston, Ohio, where he is the owner of the aptly named The Tower Clock Company.
South Charleston isn’t exactly around the corner from Grosse Pointe, and Wright has been living in South’s “S” lot while repairing the clock tower.
“There’s a lot of action,” Wright said, of living in an RV in South’s parking lot for weeks at a time.
It was crucial to have a specialist like Wright working with South’s clock, engineer Michael Torongo via e-mail.
“The clock tower needed to have worn parts replaced, adjustments to weights and mechanisms and a complete overhaul on the frame,” said Torongo. “We found Phil because I knew that the clock at Greenfield Village was recently renovated, and I found out Phil was the guy that did it.”
Greenfield Village’s clock tower is very similar to South’s 134-foot tower in age, style and mechanics, Torongo said.
Wright became involved in this rare career early on, he said.
“I met a guy who is a steeplejack, the guys that climb around on top of buildings and paint the little things up on top,” Wright said. “I didn’t want to do that, but he did (clock repairs) on the side, and I got interested in that.”
This same man gave Wright the opportunity to work on a courthouse clock from the next county over, he said. Wright was able to tinker with it and learn how it operated. From there, he was able to start his own business.
Because of his expertise at a career that some may say is dying out, Wright said he travels around in his RV to do different jobs. Living in a motor home can come with some surprises.
“One morning I turned the coffee maker on, and it’s worked every day before, but today I have no power at all in the RV,” Wright said.
Overall, though, traveling around to work can be pretty enjoyable, he said.
“I get homesick, but the nice thing about it is that 75 percent of my work is all done at home, and being self-employed is nice too, so I can take a day off whenever I want,” Wright said.
From the three unique times he has visited, Wright has stayed at South cumulatively for close to a month. He said he needed to spend time on South’s clock tower because some of the mechanisms were not working properly, and this necessitated his physical presence.
Problems with the clock have persisted for years, Principal Moussa Hamka said.
“The clock wasn’t keeping the correct time, even when we would reset it, and would lose the time or stop,” Hamka said.
Also, the bell that is supposed to chime on the hour was not chiming, Hamka said. Because of these problems, Wright first came out to South in the early spring.
“He developed a plan, and then in the summer he started disabling and taking it apart,” Hamka said.
He came out here in his trailer a few times, took things apart to work on at home, and came back, said Hamka.
“To me, the preservation of history is one of the best things about clock restoration,” Wright said. “Knowing what it had to take to build even the body of these–I know it had to be very expensive back then to even have one of these–and the fact that this one and others are still running and still in such good shape is really amazing.”
Preserving South’s historical landmark is important not only to South, but to the community, Hamka said. This is manifest in the financial support of The Mothers’ Club.
“The repairs cost approximately $40,000 and were paid for by the funds raised by the Mothers’ Club Preservation Committee,” Hamka said.
Recently, the Mothers’ Club received a substantial gift from the Robert E. Beck Trust, started by a former South graduate.
“The gift was to be used for large projects such as the clock tower restoration,” Kianna Rose, Vice President of Preservation for the Mothers’ Club, said via e-mail.
Alumni donors have also made donations specifically for the clock tower, Rose said, proving just how important the the tower is to students.
“It was really cool, it looked like something from a movie,” said Anna Carmondy ‘16 of her time visiting the tower. “There were so many names and I kept on finding graduated people I knew,” said Carmondy.
Preserving history is important because it connects all generations of South students.
“The tower is such a unique part of South, and has been an important tradition to South students for so long,” said Carmondy.
As one of the most beautiful schools in all of Grosse Pointe, and one of the most beautiful schools in the state of Michigan, it is important for the community to recognize the significance of historical preservation, said Rose.
“The Mothers’ Club works to keep South looking like a historic building, but functioning like a modern one,” Rose said.
Ultimately, working on South’s clock tower was a great experience for Wright. The clock tower is now in complete working order, ringing on the hour with the correct time.
“One of the best things about clocks is that everyone of them have a story, they’re all different,” Wright said. “This is a nice one here,” he said.
