AGE: 70

RESIDENCE: Amherst

OCCUPATION: Professor, Department of Psychology, Lorain County Community College

HIS SPARE TIME: McKinley began collecting talking clocks in 1990 as a way to help his vision-impaired mother know the time. He believes he has the world’s largest collection of talking clocks — more than 900, 200 of which are displayed around his home. “We are pursuing Guinness World Records to confirm this. There are other talking-clock collectors, but they are niche collectors,” says McKinley.

A TIMELY RESPONSE: His hobby has resulted in several print articles, television interviews and YouTube™ videos (search for gladstone555). McKinley began the International Society of Talking Clock Collectors, whose Web site, talkingclocks.net, serves as a virtual gallery of his collection. He has also written a book, TICk, TOCk TALk: The Collected History and Significance of Talking Clocks.

SAVING TIME: With all of these chattering clocks, switching to standard and daylight saving time can be quite a chore for McKinley and his wife, Susan. “Changing the clocks to standard time in the fall takes about 7 hours, whereas changing to DST in the spring requires only about 3 hours,” he says. “Think about it.”