At graduation, the Frank S. Walker Award was given to two dedicated members of the Woodberry Forest staff: Gary Brookman, the golf course’s greenskeeper, and Chuck Engel, the maintenance department’s electrician. Presented annually, the award honors the “member of the staff who has given most unselfishly in the performance of his or her duties, thus helping to perpetuate the spirit of Woodberry as exemplified by Mr. Frank Walker during his lifetime.”
Gary Brookman began working at Woodberry in September 1986, a few months after he graduated from high school. After two years in the grounds department, he joined his father, Otis, then the head golf course greenskeeper.
Today, Gary is responsible for golf course upkeep, including mowing grass, pruning trees, and edging and refilling the bunkers. On a typical day, he said, “We get here at six o’clock in the morning, go out and blow off and mow the greens, and then sometimes we’ll rake the bunkers and start mowing fairways.”
Beyond daily upkeep, Gary has helped reshape the course over the years. “Hole four used to be much straighter,” he said. “We kinda curved the fairway.” He, his brother Bruce, and his father put in most of the trees and bunkers on the eighth hole.
When he learned that Gary had received the Frank S. Walker Award, John Faulconer ’58, who has been playing the Woodberry course since 1952, said, “Well, good. He deserves it! It’s just a special course.” “When my dad came here, this course was nothing,” said Gary. “My dad got it back in shape. I remember seeing the fairways turn black because there was no irrigation on it at all. Back in the day, it was rough turning the irrigation on. We’d go out in a buggy in the nighttime and cut the water off by hand. We had to reach down into a valve box in the ground to turn it on.”
Gary’s parents, Otis and Jean Brookman, were longtime employees at Woodberry; both received the Frank S. Walker Award in 1988. The family has been a part of Woodberry for generations. “At one time my whole family worked here: my grandparents and all my brothers and sisters,” Gary said. “My mom was born and raised here, in a house somewhere on campus.” He moved onto campus when he was a small child.
“I think I was three years old,” Gary said. “We moved into that house right at the gatehouse.” Gary has two daughters, a grandson, and a granddaughter expected soon. He lives in Orange with his parents, whom he cares for.
Gary thinks the most satisfying aspect of his work at Woodberry is the people he works with. “We’ve got good memories,” he says. “There are very nice people here.” As much as he enjoys his job, he is already making plans for his retirement. “I want to go watch the Masters,” said Gary. “I think that will be my first trip.”
Before coming to Woodberry, Chuck Engel did construction on campus as an outside contractor and worked on several major projects including the Dick Gym, the Walker Fine Arts Center, and Terry Hall. “In ’95 or ’96, my company was doing the art center remodel,” Chuck said. “I started getting to know Gene Lewis and Hugh Morris, and they started talking to me about coming here full time.” Eventually, Chuck was ready to leave construction and joined the Woodberry maintenance staff as an electrician in 2004. While the campus wasn’t new to him, working on the staff still took some adjustment. “I was extremely nervous,” Chuck said. “It took me about two-and-a-half or three years to really feel like, ‘Yeah this is it, I’m here for the long haul.’” He explained that the tempo of work at Woodberry is very different from construction. “In construction there’s a starting day and there’s an ending day. In maintenance there’s never an ending day,” Chuck said. “You have to adjust to the fact that you’re never ‘done’ here.” Chuck notes that there is no typical workday because the work changes with the seasons. “When the boys leave,” he said, “your job is to prepare for sports camp, Father-Son Weekend, or the year to come.” His favorite time of year is Reunion Weekend. “You feel the excitement in the air, and it’s an opportunity for people on our end of the spectrum of work to let their lights shine,” Chuck said. “When we’re done putting things together, the best thing that can happen is that we don’t have to do anything; we’re in the shadows, because then things are flawless.”
Chuck missed this year’s reunion because he was on medical leave. “For the last seven months, I haven’t been able to contribute to Woodberry,” Chuck said. “I wasn’t able to bring anything to the table, but Woodberry allowed me to recover and come back. I’m thankful for that.” He thinks the most satisfying part about working at Woodberry is providing a service to the people who live on campus. “I think that’s one of the greatest rewards you can have,” said Chuck.
“I try to tell young people: Enjoy the journey,” said Chuck. “Take time to enjoy the fact that you’re an electrician here, or a plumber here, or a painter, or a teacher. I always like to say ‘We’. The Frank S. Walker Award — I feel like there’s a lot of unseen people who are responsible for that,” Chuck said. “I can’t take care of this whole campus by myself, probably fifty of us can’t do it. So it’s a team effort, it’s a family thing.” Chuck’s own family includes his wife, Becky, and their son, Curtis, who lives about twenty minutes away from the couple’s home in Orange.
Before he leaves Woodberry, Chuck says there is one project he hopes to complete: “I’ve always had a goal that when I left here the lighting would be more even,” Chuck said. “As an electrician, you want light. It’s just what you are.” He’s seen a big change in his twenty years. “I wish I had a video of the school twenty years ago. It was very dark,” said Chuck. “There were no lights on the sidewalks. If you were walking the dog at night, you had a flashlight with you, or you were just walking in the dark.”
“My dad told us growing up: always try to leave a place better than you found it,” Chuck said. “And that’s here — everyone does their part, and we all will be leaving the place better than when we found it. This place is a special place, it really is.”
When he retires, he says, “I’d like to do nothing more than what I learned to do over the months it took me to go from being sick to where I am now. I enjoyed sitting in the house, with my wife, drinking a cup of coffee, looking out the window at the birds, just that slow time. I want to do a little more of that.”