Bob Martin owned this very interesting mid-century Kodak Signet 35 camera. I didn’t know Bob liked or pursued photography. (He also had a nice Olympus OE 1.) To be clear I am simply the temporary custodian of this camera until a suitable home is found. The camera, designed in early 1950, had five variants. This one, the 35, was first a military model with a more rugged machined aluminum frame instead of plastic. Other details from this Wiki article: “The Signet 35 has a coupled coincident image rangefinder,[1] an excellent Ektar 44mm f3.5 lens with rear helicoid focus, automatic film stop counter with double exposure prevention, all built into a sturdy cast aluminum alloy body. The shutter must be cocked manually, and only it only had four shutter speeds.[2] The Signet 35 is very different in appearance, function, and durability, from the rest of the Signet line.”
I met Bob and his wife, Mary Lou in the fall of 1975 when I enrolled at Johnson in Knoxville, TN. Bob had just arrived from Kansas to serve as the minister at Forest Avenue Christian Church. Cindy and I were among the few there on that first Sunday (but the Kansas Contingent was strong!). We were invited to stay for chili, as I recall, perhaps incorrectly. It was from Bob, first as my minister, then friend and later professor that I learned my most enduring and important lessons in theology, lessons I rely on every day. The really critical life lessons were simply being around Bob and Mary Lou. From them we all learned patience, kindness, grace, love, genuine prayer and a host of other amazing faithful expressions of what the Body of Christ was really to be modeling, Bob was, in my time, a careful, meticulous and ordered man. His extensive library of books were rotated on a schedule to keep the spines straight. Astonishing. Bob was also generous but not on himself, frugal and Bob seemed to fit. So I was very surprised to learn that the Younger Version or perhaps Bob 1.0 would have expended over a $100 on a camera in 195X. But it makes me very happy to know that about him.
I like to imagine that like me the camera was a tool to see differently and enduringly the world God created. Anyway, that’s what I choose to think.
