Not many people stop a successful career past the age of 40 to pursue a dream, but that’s exactly what local luthier Bill Mason did.

A King George native, Mason, 53, always loved music and a lot of it was Southern Rock. Mason said when he was growing up he had two choices: go to a university if your parents could afford it or join the military. Mason's father was an assistant manager at the old Safeway on William Street for 36 years and money was tight for this middle class family, so he spent six years in the Army with the 82nd Airborne Division as a paratrooper. After the Army, Mason returned to King George and worked at White's Meatpacking Factory as an assistant engineer. He was able to get an Associate's degree in horticulture and he climbed the ranks until he finally got a horticulturist job at a botanical garden in Richmond. This is also where he met his wife, Elaine.

“That was the icing on the cake and that’s where the violin thing started kicking in," he said. "I wanted to learn how to fiddle and I took fiddle lessons.”

Mason already had a knack for working on instruments and he was helping a guy in Richmond who would buy and repair instruments to resell. His passion changed and violins started to become a big part of his life.

“I didn’t want to spend my 50s bending over pulling weeds for the rest of my life,” Mason said. “I thought, ‘why not violin making?’”

Mason searched for violin-making schools and found four in the United States. He flew to Boston to meet with the administrators of one of the schools, but there wasn’t any spark, so he came back to Virginia to try again. He found the Chimney Violin Apprenticeship Program in Boiling Springs, Pa., and decided to give it a try. He and his wife drove to the school after a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert to meet with award-winning luthier Edward Campbell, who owned the business. Mason said when he got to the school he saw violins drying on a perch and he knew he was at the right place.

“I thought I died and gone to Heaven,” he said.

The meeting went well, so Mason quit his horticulture job, his wife quit her graphic design job with the state government, and they moved to Boiling Springs so he could pursue his dream of becoming a professional luthier. Mason said one of the first things Campbell did was hand him a piece of paper, a compass and pencil and told him to draw a violin. That drawing, which Mason has framed on a wall, is now the base for every violin that he makes. About 400 hours of work goes into each violin. His violins start at about $1,000 and he also repairs other wood instruments. In fact, he had just brought back to life an upright bass that someone was about to throw away.

Three years ago, Mason rented an apartment on Jackson Street and below he opened up Wm Mason II Violin Shop at 509-1 Jackson. St. His goal is to educate the public on the quality of instruments and the work of a real luthier. His wife runs the administrative side of the business and Tae Wills, who also attended Chimney Violin Apprenticeship Program, is Mason’s other full-time luthier. Mason has been a professional luthier for eight years. When he speaks about his profession, there is a genuine child-like passion connected to his expressions.

“This is an old-work tradition with science, chemistry and physics involved,” Mason said. “It is a living and breathing thing and it changes with the seasons. The instruments I make today are my violins. They aren't store bought. They aren't kits. They are my violins."