Molloy a skilled craftsman
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It seems McMinnville’s Bob Molloy can’t look at a piece of wood without seeing something wonderful that could be made from it. And indeed, he has spent a good portion of his life doing just that, making beautiful things from wood. Molloy is one of what some say is a dwindling breed, a true artisan. In his hands a few boards can become an intricately designed and constructed box that is as much a joy to touch as it is to behold.
Molloy says he developed an interest in woodworking when he was just a child.
“I’ve been interested in it all my life,” he said. “When I was just a little shaver, my mother went to Nashville and bought me a little handsaw. And it just sort of started from there. Then in the eighth grade, I built a boat. Everybody else was building corner what-nots and I built a boat.”
Oddly enough, the burgeoning woodworker had little formal instruction.
“It was kind of a self-taught thing,” Molloy said.
But though he loved woodworking, he didn’t choose to make his hobby a career, opting instead to teach in another field altogether.
“I was an electronics instructor at Tennessee Technology Center for 26 years,” he said. But even though his days were filled with wiring, switches, diodes and transistors, his spare time was spent lovingly turning wood into pieces of art.
“It kept me from going crazy,” he said with a grin.
Molloy has pieces all over the county, in Japan and Europe and oddly enough, created a wooden automobile that was designed to be a part of state history.
“It was made to go in, down at the capitol, a capsule they buried to be opened in a hundred years. I made it out of 18 local woods and put a story in there with it.”
Molloy said his airplane was probably his most involved project.
“It took me nine years,” he said. “There was a whole lot to it. A whole lot to it.”
The hand-built aircraft won several awards.
“I won best in Tennessee twice with it,” Molloy said, but like many of his creations, his beloved airplane eventually left his hands.
“I sold it,” he said, a bit sadly. “Wish I hadn’t, but I did.”
While he loves woodworking, Molloy says he is concerned about its future.
“High schools are phasing it out,” he said. “Tennessee Technology Center is phasing it out. It’s becoming sort of a lost art. I can remember having a lot of old men around this country here, craftsmen, they’re no longer here.”
Molloy loves to stay busy. He was involved with the local rescue squad for many years, and is currently part of the local Public Safety Unit, but the workshop is still his refuge.
“I can just come out here and get lost,” he said. “I don’t have to think about everything in the world. That’s what I like about it.”