How long have you been involved in landscaping at TCU?

Eleven years — ever since I came here, I was hired as a grounds supervisor.

How did you come to work here?

My son started school here and was playing in the soccer program — back when they had a men’s soccer program. But really he enrolled, and I just happened to be looking in the paper one day and saw a grounds supervisor position over here. That’s kind of the same position I was at with the City of Southlake before I came here, and the rest is history.

What is your favorite thing about your work?

I enjoy all my work for the most part. Last year, it was voted in the top 42 universities in the nation to work for, and it is a good place to work — a good family-type atmosphere. But besides my daily job functions, which I enjoy, I enjoy things from interacting with students to working with other departments.

My area is the Campus Commons and everything northward over to Cantey and all the way to Ed Landreth. I even have Scharbauer Hall. I have a big square here, but of course most of my action goes on here in the commons. So I’ll work with SGA, theCrew to Shawn Wagner here in the [Brown-Lupton University Union] when they have other special events — the graduation party at the end of the year. Just working with the good people that work here at TCU. 

How did you get involved in Staff Assembly?

In Staff Assembly, you can actually nominate yourself and run and get your name on the ballot. This is my third year, but about three years ago it was where each division would nominate people. The division I’m in — the Physical Plant — they’d send out a sheet with 400 names on it and say circle 20. Then a week or two later, here was the top 20 and we had six openings. Circle six. Anyway, I got elected that way, and then I was in there one year.

You serve a two-year term in Staff Assembly. And it was May, our last meeting, and they said we were going to elect officers now. They elected the secretary, and then they said, ‘All right, we have two nominations for co-chair,’ because co-chair will serve and then take over as chair the next year.

They said the two nominations were so-and-so and Randy Chambers. I’m thinking I’ve just been in this one year. Anyway, they took a vote and came back in and said Randy Chambers was your new co-chair.

I served in that capacity for half a year, and the chair ended up retiring in December. So, I ended up taking over his spot, and this is my full year that I should be chair of Staff Assembly.

But it was one of those deals: You get voted in, and then you get voted in as an officer and go from there.

What is the objective of staff assembly?

Staff Assembly was created in 1999 by Chancellor Ferrari, and it was to give an opportunity for staff members to voice their concerns about things or issues that there are out there that they’d like to see addressed. At one time, exempt and non-exempt were kind of separated, and Staff Assembly is now made up of exempt and non-exempt employees campus-wide. Each division for every 20 people in the division has one Staff Assembly representative, and we have about 70 members, give or take a few. But that’s what it was created for — it’s just there for us to voice concerns and issues.

What are your plans for the future?

I plan on retiring here from TCU, and hopefully I’ll have taken care of business to where I can play golf. And family — family is very big to me. I have one grandson right now — a two-and-a-half-year-old — and my son and daughter-in-law of course.