Every now and then fate insists that some things are simply meant to be. Consider the tower clock in Recitation Hall on Wittenberg’s campus.

The original plans, drawn in 1882, for a new campus building included a tower clock, but funding never made it into the budget. Ninety-five years later, in 1977, the executive director for advancement, Jacob Baas ’64, worked with Jennifer Vanica ’76 on a proposal to secure a capital gift that would fund a clock for the tower.

The proposal resulted in a gift from Kathryn Flook Littleton ’23, in memory of her husband Herbert ’21, which provided for the necessary refurbishing of the tower, and the purchase and installation of a clock.

On Dec. 16, 1977, during a dedication ceremony, the university unveiled a memorial plaque for the Herbert A. Littleton Memorial Tower Clock, which came with both a pedigree and a past.

Augustus Kountze ordered the three-face Seth Thomas tower clock built by A.C. Hotchkiss, in memory of his parents, for Trinity Lutheran Church near Canton. The church was dedicated and renamed Kountze Memorial Lutheran Church in 1891.

In 1968 the clock barely survived the scrap heap when fire destroyed the church. Eight months after the fire, a dealer in Canton, Ohio, purchased the clock for $320, took it apart and packed it in several cardboard cartons.

For nine years, the clock resided in Hickory, Pa., before returning to Ohio, first to Granville and finally to the Kettering workshop of Dayton pediatrician and antique clock collector and restorer Dr. Lee R. Ashmun, who restored the clock to its original beauty.

Records show that retired Wittenberg faculty member John W. Patterson first spotted the antique, and Baas reports that Roger Bloomfield ’67, who was then director of planned giving, began the negotiations that resulted in the clock’s move to its final destination in the tower of Recitation Hall.

Bloomfield secured final verification of the clock’s history from the pastor of Kountze Church who also happened to be a Wittenberg alumnus, the Rev. Donald R. Smith ’65, and the clock came home.

The antique, dated Dec. 24, 1888, with #503 stamped on its nameplate, required winding once a week and only one modification.

To protect the clock from the elements and illuminate it at night, the wooden faces were replaced with specially made plastic faces.

At that time, only three such clocks remained in the world, one of them still resides in Nassau Hall at Princeton University, according to Baas.

Unfortunately, once again time moves without measure in the tower of Recitation Hall. After 24 years of keeping pace with the rest of the world, the clock in the tower remains silent.

According to John Paulsen, director of plant, environment and safety, the clock stopped about three years ago.

“The hands are out of balance, which has caused the gears to wear out,” Paulsen said. “We had it priced to replace the hands and gears, but it hasn’t been funded.”

— Phyllis Eberts ’00