A Son’s Symphony: Benjamin Clowdus Engineers a Cure for Silent Nights
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Robert Gauthier
Team Cliff & Vi
From videocassette recorders to souls, Benjamin Clowdus, 39, can fix them. Self taught on the violin and ocarina, he’s often seen around Maryville, Mo., performing on Main Street in front of Scooter’s Coffee. Benjamin is an expert self-taught electrician, who has served the community for 20 years as an employee of Best Brands Plus, fixing appliances, stereo equipment and just about everything else that has wires.
“Music and electricity will both make you tingle,” he says. “Both will make your hair go up.” Benjamin’s father, Rodney Clowdus, 69, is nearly completely blind and deaf. Benjamin designed and built him a high power hearing aid from scratch nearly 6 years ago. He lives at home with his brothers and sister caring for “Daddy-O,” as they call him.
On a recent night at their Ravenwood, Missouri home, Benjamin and his sister, Diane, serenaded “Daddy-O.” Filled with their music he could clearly hear every note enter his body, healing the pains of aging.
Benjamin Clowdus, 39, plays an ocarina on Sept. 23, 2026, on Main Street in Maryville, Mo. He started playing in public soon after his mother, Nancy, died in 2020. “Ever since mom passed away, I wanted a friend,” he said. “I’ve searched quite a while and I really haven’t found anyone like her.”
Benjamin plays his ocarina during lunch hour outside Scooter’s Coffee. With the help of YouTube videos and books like “Violin for Dummies,” he learned to play both the ocarina and violin. “When I’m playing I’m thinking about the world and all the people that are suffering,” he said.
Benjamin shares a laugh with Spencer Miller, 79, left, Jim Hazen, 76, center right, and Nikki Falcone, 42, right on Sept. 25, 2026 at Scooter’s Coffee. Morning coffee with friends happens every Friday. “Before I met them, I drowned myself in books,” he said. He searched for answers to his loneliness by reading dozens of books on human nature and psychology.
Benjamin repairs a videocassette recorder at Best Brands Plus. His boss, Cliff McNair, is closing the business and is proud to say he mentored Benjamin since he was 17 years old. “I helped bring Ben along,” Cliff said. Benjamin is building his own shop at his home in Ravenwood, where “Benjamins Best” electronics will be based.
Benjamin arrives to replace a faulty freezer fan for Nancy Smith at her home in Maryville. Early in his career as an electrician, he earned the nickname the “Wiz Kid of Maryville.” At 16, he showed great interest in electronics so his father, Rodney Clowdus, 69, handed him a thick electronics manual and a broken Denon amplifier. He fixed it in a few months and by the end of the year he was offered a job at Best Brands Plus/Radio Shack.
Nancy Smith watches as Benjamin clears her freezer to repair a faulty fan.
Benjamin arrives at his home on Sept. 24, 2026 in Ravenwood, Mo. The three-story structure was designed and built by Rodney in 2010. Plans to finish the project were stalled by the Covid epidemic and the progression of Rodney’s Retinitis Pigmentosa, which has left him legally blind. “My dad used a CAD program to design it,” Benjamin said. “At the time he could see and use a measuring tape. Not too long after, my dad couldn’t read a measuring tape.”
Rodney laughs while showing off his hearing aids. Rodney is nearly completely blind and deaf. Benjamin designed and built a custom made hearing aid for him six years ago. It contained a utility belt that holds a transmitter and two high power microphones.
Rodney, “Daddy-O,” pets Flipper, a 17 year-old tropical fish, as Benjamin and his sister, Diane, arrives home from work.
Rodney weeps with joy and pride as Benjamin and Diane play their original composition, “Effigy of the Faeries." “They sound like angels,” Rodney said, teary-eyed.
The family dogs beg for attention as Benjamin enjoys the solitude of his bedroom on September 24, 2026.
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