Santa Rosa clock repair shop closes after more than decade

Cyrus Wind Dancer’s first exposure to clock restoration is now a distant — yet exceptionally clear — childhood memory. He was just 11 and was visiting his grandfather, who owned an old grandfather clock that stopped ticking in 1937.

“I opened the door, and I just started working with it,” Wind Dancer said. “I got it running, but I didn’t know what I was doing. It started striking, and my grandfather came running in. He hadn’t heard that noise in 20 years.”

After this initial exposure, Wind Dancer let his passion rest for decades before he picked it up again with the opening of his shop, Clocksmith Cyrus, 12 years ago.

Since then, he has worked as a clocksmith in Santa Rosa off Highway 12 for more than a decade, repairing century-old clocks that are close to customers’ hearts.

“Every clock that came in had a story,” he said.

Now at 77, Wind Dancer is closing his shop and finishing up the last few projects he’s committed to doing. But it is not the end of his clocksmith career. He will move to Corvallis, Oregon, and open another clock-restoration business.

For Wind Dancer, the choice isn’t necessarily ideal.

“I would love to stay here,” he said. “I love Sonoma County — I love the music, I love the people.”

The cost of living in Sonoma County, coupled with the difficulty of being “a 19th-century mechanic trying to work in the 21st century” has led Wind Dancer to search for a location better suited to his budget.

Wind Dancer plans to work for several more years at his shop in Corvallis to help pay for the costs of moving, but he hopes to retire in the near future.

“I would like to slow down and smell the roses,” he said. “I’ve worked since I was 10 years old.”

Wind Dancer explored a number of career paths through the past decades. He served in the Peace Corps in Gambia in West Africa for two years and as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer in West Virginia for a year.

He owned an auto-repair shop in Cotati and later worked in the wine industry. He also studied environmental science at Sonoma State University and worked in the energy field.

Originally from Ohio, Wind Dancer unintentionally landed in Sonoma County in 1972 after a college friend recommended he visit the then-small town of Cotati. He and his now ex-wife, Toni, moved to the town, where Wind Dancer opened his auto-repair business.

“I bought a rundown building for $600,” he said. “I called Toni and she couldn’t even find Cotati on the map.”

His journey as a business owner continued up until the 2008 Recession, when he “lost everything” working as a contractor and sought a career change.

Wind Dancer said his clock business was inspired by retired business owner Fran Fleet, who owned the former Sandalady shop in Cotati which specialized in baseball and softball glove repair before closing last year.

“I wanted to do something unique, and her business was what came to my mind,” he said.

He researched the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, which has a School of Horology for aspiring clockmakers in Columbia, Pennsylvania.

Wind Dancer “sold everything” and headed to Pennsylvania in 2010. He returned and opened his Rincon Valley shop.

“I let go of whether I was going to make money or not — I had a passion for it,” he said. “When I open a clock that was hand-built 300 or 400 years ago and try to bring it back to life again, there’s a magic to that.”