By Mark Stenberg

Photo John Foxworth

Gary Killinger knows keys. After all, he is the supervisor for locks and keys here at UT. But brass keys are going the way of the dinosaur and the post office right? “Actually,” Killinger noted with a smirk, “we’re processing about 75 keys a day.”

However, for a man who makes his living designing and distributing tiny, meticulously cut bits of brass (fifteen thousandths of an inch, he’ll tell you), he’s all for reducing the number of them on campus.

“All exterior buildings will be card-read in probably three or four years,” Killinger said. “That’s fine. [Brass] keys will be around forever. Electronics break, and you’ll always need to have a backup key.”

It’s easy talking about keys, but making them? That’s not as simple. A replacement key can be done in minutes, but constructing a new key is complex. A process that Killinger admitted is fraught with calculations and precision, it can take three to four hours to complete just one.

“That’s one thing,” Killinger said with a laugh. “I show up and install the thing in five minutes, and the guy goes, ‘Oh, that wasn’t so hard.’ Yeah? Were you there for the four hours I spent making the thing?”

But Killinger loves his job.

“The budget cuts are hard. You’re supposed to do the same thing you did last year this year but with less money,” Killinger said. And this is coming from a guy whose life revolves around precision and important details. But Killinger insisted there’s a silver lining: “There’s a feeling of appreciation from everyone working here. We’re all just glad that we haven’t had to make any cuts yet.”

Despite the budget cuts and increasing number of electronic keys, Killinger is busier than ever. He directed my attention toward the construction on Speedway and 24th Streets.

“You see that? That was all cranes last year,” Killinger said. “That’s hundreds of new keys just right there.”

That, in addition to the 265 UT structures they’re in charge of, has kept Killinger and his team of about a half dozen busy lately. So busy that Killinger has no time on the weekends to do anything— anything except design, construct, paint and sell custom motorcycles and occasionally golf. In fact, he seems to make time for everything but UT football, having only been to one game in the last 12 years. “Want one?” he joked, trying to change the subject back to motorcycles.

Despite the unusually high volume of business and decreased budget, at the end of the day, it’s about being someone on whom people can rely, Killinger said.

“We’re like McDonalds,” he said. “You go to McDonalds and ask for fries, and they say ‘Sorry. We’re out of fries.’ You say, ‘What? You’re McDonalds. Fries are what you do.’ Well, we do keys, and we’re going to keep making them.”