February 07, 2009By Terry Whetstone
Staff Writer
NEW MILLPORT - Have you ever seen some stained-glass windows adorning a church or other building and wondered who takes the time to do such a project? What many may not realize is that a person who would undertake such a task actually lives right here in Clearfield County.
David Lynn started working with stained glass about five years ago, and he's still doing it today.
(NOTE - David's, wife, Annie Freeman Lynn, also is a classmate. She still writes for The Progress, as does their daughter, Wendy.)
The Erhard, Knox Township, resident said he taught himself to make the stained-glass windows, and began to teach a class on the craft in a Curwensville craft shop a few years later. Before working with stained glass, he painted the windows, but over time, even though it was for windows, the paint would peel off.
"My wife (Annie) suggested I try stained glass since the paint wasn't working," he said. He crafted the windows at the Curwensville Christian and Missionary Alliance Church, and he has been around to other churches and buildings creating his masterpieces, including St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, First Baptist Church and the CNB Bank offices on Second Street, all in Clearfield.
At the bank offices, he said that the third-floor window was bulging out toward the street and was in dire need of repairs.
"It was probably 70-100 years old," he said. Mr. Lynn said he took the window apart and rebuilt it, and while some pieces were damaged and non-repairable, he just replaced them with his own materials. Stained glass is made from either a copper or lead base and is sold in a variety of colors. Mr. Lynn said that just about any color can be acquired. He recently built a lamp for his home, and said that he put about 30 hours of work into it, from design to actual completion. This is the second lamp for his home that he has built.
"The designs are all his own, too," said Mrs. Lynn.
Mr. Lynn was an employee of the state Department of Transportation for 33 years before retiring. He held a number of positions including draftsman, highway designer and civil engineer, to name a few. Through his work, he acquired a surplus drafting table, which is where he designs his lamps and other projects.
Among some of his other glass projects are smaller items like snowflakes that are 4 or 5 inches across, and a huge design that is in the living room window of his home that weighs approximately 5 pounds.
The front door to his home is also adorned with stained glass, and the door and the two lamps feature lighthouses, which Mrs. Lynn likes. Mr. Lynn said he has to use a cutting wheel made of tungsten carbide to cut the glass because a steel wheel only works for about 15 minutes. "They (tungsten carbide wheels) are almost as tough as diamond," he said. When he's not working with stained glass, Mr. Lynn enjoys stamp collecting, something he has been doing for a very long time. He got started in the stamp-collecting hobby thanks to his grandmother, Elizabeth Boal.
He has thousands of stamps, most of which he has purchased over the years. He usually goes to the American Philatelic Center in Bellefonte or to Subway Stamps in Altoona, and one book he has purchased has about 53 stamps on one page that were all printed in the 1800s. While he has purchased stamps, he has also acquired some from mail he has obtained. He has many books of stamps, although some of them are not full and he has spaces where some stamps need to go, should he acquire them. So, how much are the stamps worth?
"Some of the unused ones are worth about 50 cents," Mr. Lynn said. "But they can be worth several hundred too." But that isn't all there is to Mr. Lynn - he has also served in the service for the country. "I was shocked at how quickly I got in (to the U.S. Army)," he said. "I was sworn in the day after Christmas." That was in the 1960s. He spent three years in photo interpretation, where he put films and photos together for aerial photography and, eventually, spy satellites.
"Satellites were still very new and very hush-hush," Mr. Lynn said. "People didn't know they existed. Then, when they realized they were feasible, a camera was put on them." Another of his jobs involved driving a colonel around. He recalls a time when he was late one day for a pickup and saw the colonel walking down the road. He stopped and asked if he needed a ride, and while this colonel did, it wasn't the colonel he was expecting.
Mr. Lynn said that when he was younger, he was also into collecting snakes. He said that when he'd go for a walk, if he'd see a snake, he gathered it up and take it home with him. He had around five cages in his Clearfield home where he kept them. His wife is not a very big supporter of snakes, so he no longer collects them. Aside from that, he also likes to sketch and enjoys being with his horses.
He also enjoys reading, including books by authors like John Grisham, Clive Cussler and Tom Clancey.When asked as to which he prefers, stamp collecting or stained glass, Mr. Lynn replied, "It's six of one and a half dozen of the other."
