Sequachee Valley Electric Cooperative — Your Touchstone Energy Cooperative
Northside Clocks
Good morning,
I wanted to quickly write a thank you email expressing our gratitude for sending us, Northside Clocks, several copies of the July 2013 edition.
Mr. Howell B. Rust, the clock man, passed on Oct. 21 at the age of 57. He had been paralyzed for a year prior due to a torn aorta. It was a tough battle, but after being put on life support, Mr. Rust decided it was his time. It was rather devastating to both the family and the business. It’s ironic, really. A man who dedicated his entire life to time was robbed of the lion’s share of his own.
It’s a steep learning curve. Within the past week, Derek Rust actually gave up his dream job (he was a firefighter) in an effort to preserve his family legacy. We are finally moving forward and making strides. It took us a bit, but we are back on our feet, and we are determined to keep our dying tradition alive. We even have a fifth generation running around now. He is 6 and “fixes” all sorts of clocks. By that I mean breaks old clock movements with a hammer and calls it “horology.”
The fourth generation’s wife, Nicole Rust, who actually trained in the Northside Clocks with Howell while she was in high school, resigned from her RN position to come repair clocks full time with her husband. Together they are not simply making things work but making them work well.
I just wanted to reach out and say thank you. I’m their business manager, Austin Graf (Mrs. Rust’s brother), and it truly has been a trying year and a half since I took this position. So, I just wanted to express how very much it means to us every time we are reminded that we were in The Tennessee Magazine. It gives us hope for the future, and it reminds the fourth generation and myself why we gave up our careers in the first place. This wasn’t always our dream, but sometimes dreams fall into our laps unexpectedly.
Thank you for helping us preserve something that is truly “old as time.” Your magazine is a continual source of hope for our little business, and one day we hope to see the fourth generation (and fifth) on that cover.
Warm regards and sincere thanks, Austin Graf, Northside Clocks, Manchester
Editor’s note: We are very sad to hear of your loss. Mr. Rust was a treasure.
Event Submissions
Please advise what I need to do to include information on an event at my church in the magazine. The First United Methodist Church in Somerville will be having a holiday bazaar on Nov. 10 to raise funds for outreach ministry.
Connie Brown, Somerville
Editor’s note: We have an Almanac tab on our www.tnmagazine.org homepage where you can enter your own events at anytime. Or you can email the event details to [email protected].
