On October 8th, 2007, my friend and mentor, John W. Grass, passed
away.  While he was not directly active in mechanical music, he mostly
worked on clocks.  During his memorial service, they spoke about the
carillons, such as the ones at Stanford, Berkley and other San Francisco
Bay Area institutions, that he restored and maintained.  What better
public monument to mechanical music than a well-tuned striking clock or
carillon.

I first met John when I was learning about automata.  John was an
avid traveler, who was instrumental in helping establish the special
interest tours that now happen regularly.  Through John I was able
to learn about automata and travel to Europe to see the originals in
person.  It was on these tours that I became acquainted with the people
in Utrecht, the Black Forest, and many other countries with a history
of musical clock making.  John made a lot of friends on these trips and
I am sorry to have to tell them of his passing.

I purchased my CNC milling machine from him and used his family's
tool and die shop to clean up the rollframe for my Caliola band organ.
John also helped me with a mechanical puppet I call Adelmouse Fey (who
has her own web page).  Much of what I have learned in the last twenty
years has come from his tutoring.  He will be sorely missed.

John liked to play the organ, and kept some ranks of pipes over the
loft of his office.  He would sometimes ask if I wanted to come over
and repair his player piano.  (It needs a new pin block, he said.)
I still have some of the pipe organ books he loaned to me when I first
began to work on my own small band organ.

John's company not only made parts for high tech devices such as
Klystron tubes, or those stamped metal things that stick behind the
slots of PC computer, they also made hardware used in repairing antique
furniture and other novelty items.  He liked to go to the local antiques
fair and show the reproduction hardware his company made.

For his retirement John bought a clock factory, which his son continues
to operate.  A few musical boxes owe there existence to passing though
the tool and die shop or the factory to have a difficult part made or
repaired.

We should not forget about people, who are not directly part of our
little world of mechanical music.  They are in a way a much larger part
of it.

Julie Porter