Barron's Silver Clinic

Barron's Silver Clinic was founded in 1959 by my father, Clint Barron.  Dad was born in 1910 in Providence, Rhode Island, and went to work at the Gorham Silver Company in 1926, along with his younger brother, Fred.  Dad joined the union and became the shop steward in the polishing department.  Uncle Fred became an apprentice in the silversmithing program instead.  Silversmiths were highly trained and after many years they became part of the management team.  One year the union went on strike and Dad manned the picket lines while Fred went to work with the rest of the managers to keep the place running.  The Gorham Company hired Pinkerton's agents, a lot of them, to escort the managers (and scabs) on and off the property.  Each morning Clint and Fred would walk to work together, my Dad would form up with the union men outside the gate and Fred would get behind a wedge of Pinkerton's thugs and they would crash the gate, fists and clubs flying.  At the end of the day they would repeat the exercise going in the opposite direction and then Dad and Uncle Fred would walk home again.  They had to stop arguing when they got home because Grandma wouldn't take sides in the fight and she wouldn't hear about it in the house.  When the war broke out , Dad joined the Navy, and later, in 1957, he moved our family to Winter Park, Florida.  Our town had no silversmith at the time so, after working at Orlando Plating and saving his money, he opened Barron's Silver Clinic in November of1959.  For better or worse we've been at it ever since.

David Barron

I started working at my dad's shop when I was a young boy.  I took over when Pop retired in 1980.  We've been at this location since '85.

My oldest son, Alex, won't be doing this.  He graduated from West Point in '08, and he's in the Army now.  When Alex was a cadet his regiment had the brightest brass in the class!  Alex married Sarah Minny (USMA '08) and they serve together in Iraq with the Third Armored Cavalry.  GO ARMY / BEAT NAVY!

My daughter, Whitney, is a brand new registered nurse.  Everybody loves Whitney!  She has a beautiful smile and she's good at everything she does.  Whit helped me build this website and she took all the pictures for me. 

Patrick is my youngest child, but he's no baby anymore.  Pat's a gentle giant, over 6'4" and still growing!  When he works at the shop he can do jobs that are too big for me to pick up; but he's in college now and he's very smart - a mathematical genius - and I think he'll do something better with his life.  Patrick is a fascinating person to talk to.  Look for him to make the world a better place, and do it in his own way. 

It's no accident that my children are exceptional.  I married the smartest woman in Orlando.  Donna grew up in Union Park with three brothers for company.  A good cracker, she eats what she kills.  Donna's a very competitive girl.  She played basketball and water ballet, and once she rode a motorcycle up the side of a mountain - and got carried back down.  She drove a car at the Atlanta International Speedway, crewed a racing yacht in the Atlantic, and skied on a mountain in Alaska hundreds of miles from the nearest ski lift.  Donna was a Systems Engineer at IBM when I met her, a tall, well dressed blonde with a selection of sports cars in the garage.  But I changed all that.  Now she's just poor like me; but, boy, do we have great kids!