Yesterday, one chapter of Don Ponder’s hometown success story came to a close.
Thirty-five years ago, Ponder, 67, opened Aviation Lock & Key, LLC. The Redondo Union alum (class of 1963) was working in the restaurant business at the time, and saw a niche that needed filling.
“At that time, everybody had keys in their pocket,” he said. “Now, of course, everything’s electronic and the business has changed but at that time I figured wow, looks like a good job – locks and keys don’t need refrigeration and they don’t spoil.”
New to the industry – he’d graduated with a degree in geography, worked in hospitality, and spent six years in the Army Reserves – Ponder visited a hardware store and asked its resident locksmith to teach him the art of re-keying a lock.
“I said to him – excuse me, but is that all you have to do? You’re kidding!” Ponder recalled of that visit.
It was the push he needed to seek training at Abe Freeman Occupational Center.
In its first week, Ponder’s business brought in $44.28 – a paltry amount Ponder supplemented with a waiter’s salary.
But as soon as sales hit $50 a day, he quit his side job and jumped into the locksmith business with both feet. Suffice it to say that this week, his last in the business, he was making much more than that.
After more than three decades running a successful locksmith operation, Ponder is closing up shop. He’s looking forward to working on his golf handicap, tracking his Texas property investments, spending more time with his wife (whom he met 31 years ago in Sapporo, Japan) and two grown children, and continuing to live the South Bay dream.
As for Aviation Lock & Key, its accounts, customers, and staff will go to Redmond Lock and Key on Artesia Boulevard in Redondo Beach.
