Bob Clark, a retiring Joint Base Lewis-McChord Directorate of Public Works engineering technician, describes the mechanics of the historic Garrison Headquarters building clock, which he has worked on since 2008.

JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. – In 2014, when Bob Clark heard that people were debating whether to modernize the old Joint Base Lewis-McChord Garrison Headquarters clock, he worked to turn back time.

“‘Let’s see if we can’t get this thing fixed,’” Clark, a JBLM Directorate of Public Works employee, recalled telling his then-supervisor. He had been working with the clock since 2008. “So, we came over and looked at it, and I got it working.”

A “master” clock made by IBM, it controls the other clocks in the garrison’s headquarters building. Clark said its serial number was found to have been made in the early 1920s.

“If you think about back in 1920, it’s pretty high-tech for them,” he said. “It’s just a work of art.”

Unfortunately, the clock caused more trouble in 2014. Clark looked for someone else with experience and time on their hands. As luck would have it, he found a clockmaker, from Austria living in Washington, who not only fixed the machine twice but also taught Clark how to maintain it.

“So pretty soon, I learned all about the inner workings of that clock,” Clark said. “And so, next thing I know, I was told that I would be working on that clock until the day I leave this base.”

And he did.

“So, even though I became a supervisor in DPW at the Capital Improvement Shop, I still always got the service orders for this clock,” he said.

Clark, now a DPW engineering technician, left in March for administrative leave leading to his retirement Oct. 1. Before leaving, though, he showed a new industrial control worker and a metal shop supervisor how to oil the clock – with a drop of shredder oil on a paper clip.

He didn’t seem to mind his yearslong assignment.

“This one was always fun,” he said, adding he was glad to get the clock working before it could be converted to battery usage. “It’s a labor of love. Somebody just has to come by, check on it, get it adjusted. ’Cause it’s not perfect, it doesn’t keep perfect time, but you just have to keep an eye on it.”

An Army veteran who has been on and off JBLM since August 1990, Clark will have dedicated himself to 30 years of federal service as of June. He hopes his “clockwork” isn’t forgotten.

“I wish there would be a way I could put a plaque on it that says, ‘If you guys ever get rid of this, give me a call, I’ll come and get it,’” he said. “Unfortunately, people want to modernize stuff too much, and this is something we need to keep right here. This is history.”