Elder Fellows fixing the clock

 The tower on the Nauvoo has a clock on all 4 sides. Recently the temple was pressure washed and the theory is that somehow the clock on the west face (front of the temple) was damaged so it stopped working. The hour hand would not move. The company that installed the clock is far away and charges an arm and a leg just to come to look at it so the decision was made that maybe there would be a way to repair it locally. Inside the tower there is no real access to the clock hands due to the thickness of the wall and weather-proofing. Because Russ is a retired firefighter/EMT from Ithaca and had training and experience rappelling for high-angle rescues, he offered to see if he could figure out how to fix it. This is the front of the temple from the top of the entrance steps up. The entrance is probably 15 feet above ground level.

 Here is Russ climbing out the window above the clock face. I made the white bag to hold the white rope he special-ordered for the job.  He is not wearing white because the clothing he normally wears as a temple engineer would have been loose and not especially safe for rappelling. I'm grateful that, although he's a dyed in the wool thrill seeker, he is smart about safety- at least most of the time. There was another person inside the tower and a man below as well as the photographer (our friend Bob Glutz). I was inside working in the office and unable to come out to watch.









He straddled the clock hands to avoid damaging them and slid down to where he could work on them. His first ascent was to check out the attachment of the hands so he could figure out what he needed in the way of tools. The second time he brought the proper tool and moved the hour hand to set it to the proper time.

Once he moved the hands, he could begin rappelling down to the roof balcony. It was pretty cool for a man going on 67 years old to do this! He is certainly gaining a lot of respect here at the temple for his know-how and ingenuity. He doesn't have a college degree or fancy title, but he has a knack for figuring out how things work and fixing them.













A last wave at the spectators. He made it safely to the roof!