Shop Ghosts

Nevil Shute (Norway) was the master storyteller of the generation of my youth. In 1960 he published Trustee From The Toolroom, which became one of the top ten fiction bestsellers. It is an honest story, devoid of anything that would excite literary critics or elitists, that focuses on character, values, engineering and reality to weave an adventure story full of twists and turns. As Clifton Fadiman once wrote in Book-Of-The-Month News:

While not in the conventional sense a "man's book," it makes a special appeal to all males who have ever fooled around with machinery or made a hobby out of working with power-driven tools.

The story personifies a generation of unassuming and honest men who worked quietly in their shops striving to be the best they could at their craft but who rose to meet and overcome extraordinary challenges. I have been fortunate to know such men and take advice and inspiration from them. I regard them more highly than any politician, media personality, wealthy tycoon or business executive. Most are now gone but their spirit lives on in my workshop and will, hopefully, haunt all who enter. You see, the workshop featured herein is as much theirs as it is mine and what comes out of it is directed by their spirit.

Three such men were John D. McAtee Sr., James Oliver and Tom McGuinness. Another was Billy Copeland, who was a good friend of my grandfather. I have no information on or pictures of Billy Copeland, since he passed away while I was still very young. Billy built a stool for me on the day I was born that I kept and used for many decades. Among my very earliest memories are being put up on a stool in Billy's shop and watching him use his lathe. Such are also the early memories of my children, whose experiences in the shop served them well.

It is our hope that this web site will, in some way, serve to inspire others with this spirit.