The Rob
Juniper, Aaron Cook’s helpful campus maintenance pup.
The Rob is home to our incredible maintenance crew and our campus toolshed and woodshop, led by John Rossi. John and his team care for our campus and keep it running smoothly, fixing problems that range from leaky cabin roofs and flooding to faulty sump pumps and power outages.
Built in 1971, the Rob was named after longtime Ox-Bow ceramics teacher Rob McClurg. It was previously used as Ox-Bow’s ceramics studio; prior to that, it was home to a kiln shed named Old Smokey. In 2006, with the construction of the new addition to the Ox-Bow Inn, the Lutz maintenance building had to be torn down, and the Rob was converted to serve as a facility for campus maintenance and facilities management. John Rossi designed the space, incorporating an old sink, a refrigerator, French doors, several windows, and doors from the Inn and the Lutz. The woodshop in the Rob includes a table saw, a miter saw, and a variety of hand tools.
In 2018, Ox-Bow partnered with StoryCorps to capture stories and conversations of the people who help to form what the place is today.
These interviews are provided courtesy of StoryCorps, a national nonprofit whose mission is to preserve and share humanity's stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world. www.storycorps.org.
Please contact Molly Markow at mmarkow1@ox-bow.org for a text version of the audio interview.
Playlist
The ‘Magical Musical Quarantine Mix’ is a collaborative DJ set by Nate Large & John Rossi. The set was recorded from vinyl. Make sure you listen to side A & B!
