Former Sea Gull Director
Years on Summer Staff: 8: Tennis Chief, Assistant Head Camp 1, Chief Athletics
Years on Professional Staff: 30: Head Counselor Camp 1 (2 yrs), Head Counselor Camp 4 (3 yrs), Sea Program Director (5 yrs), Personnel Director (12 yrs), Development Staff (3 yrs), and Camping Services Director (5 yrs).
Please provide a brief history of your Camp story. How were you first introduced to Sea Gull? How has it fit into your professional life and career path?
When I was getting ready to turn 17, I was encouraged to get a summer job by my dad. I was playing a lot of tennis so I looked for summer camps that had a tennis program. I applied to four camps and was accepted by all. Back then, camps just gave Jr Staff room-and-board BUT Sea Gull started a program that IF you worked all 10 weeks, at the end of the summer you would receive a check for $150. $15 a week! I was going to be rich! My dad drove me down to camp (from Burlington, NC) and I couldn't believe how big and beautiful Camp Sea Gull was. That began my love affair with Camp that has lasted most of my life. I was at the right place at the right time as Jim Epps needed help with the Y-Guides program and I had graduated and needed a job. My children became campers and staff members and kept our family's string of having a member of our family on staff at Sea Gull and/or Seafarer for 45 years without missing a summer. I say this with thankfulness as it's easy to see how Camp shaped my life and those that I love the most.
Who at Camp was most influential and impactful to you? How so?
Wyatt Taylor was crazy impactful because he was so iconic and a really powerful man. He was a great athlete, including tennis and lamented that the campers weren't using the courts. I guess he knew that the courts ran 20-30 degrees hotter than the air temperature, but still wanted to see campers there. We actually fried an egg on one of the courts one warm afternoon. Wyatt got really excited and learned my name when campers started showing up at the courts. What he didn't know, or at least never acknowledged, was that we were going through tennis balls by the dozens because we began teaching the campers how to juggle rather than how to play tennis.
The man who has changed my life, influenced my life, impacted my life for 55 years, including today is Lloyd Griffith. He hired me, trained me, coached me (rocking back on his heels, hands clasped in front, saying nasally, "I think I heard you say..." We have traveled this great journey together first as employer/employee and now as friends and I still learn from him.
Which lessons, values or skills have you carried forward from Camp into your personal and professional life?
Camp Sea Gull and Camp Seafarer exist to impart Christian principles. Hopefully those impacted spend the rest of their lives treating others well, driving differently (nicer) than most, giving more than most, living their faith more intently, training-up their children in the Sea Gull Seafarer way, and enjoying the fullness of life as they have experienced a taste of it at Camp.
What is your greatest Camp accomplishment?
Truly the greatest accomplishment, other than successfully raising a family at Camp, was having the privilege of serving as Director of Personnel with Portia Newman for a dozen years. It was the most satisfying and I believe the best work I did for Camp in all my years. So, so many great young men survived my chatty interviews, shaved their faces and cut their hair and trekked to Arapahoe in order to make a positive difference in the lives of younger men at Camp. Portia and I logged a little over 4,000 staff during our time together, over 60% returned year after year.
Tell us about your favorite Camp memory.
Wyatt teaching the campers how to whistle in the Mess Hall, or how to earn the Marlin Band down at the lake come to mind. The Marine band, sharpshooting team, and sky divers at 4th of July are a special memory. They even sent a softball team across the river to play our athletic staff for After Supper Activities on several occasions. I still laugh at the memories of many of the skits in the Mess Hall. Driving the Blue Dolly after supper with my family. Evacuating to Raleigh during Hurricane Bertha was a biggie.
The ones that make my eyes water are the ones that involve the personal caring touch of our staff. The motorboaters teaching Jamey Reynold how to waterski, Jamey only had one leg. The "tree talks". The never-ending one-on-one instruction. The zillion meals that our kitchen staff cooked for us. The archery counselor who caught me at lunch and said that my 6-year-old son Graham was frustrated because he wasn't strong enough to pull the bowstring back and had heard of a new compound bow for children that would solve that frustration. I went to New Bern that night and bought one. The next summer we had 15. The numerous times my children were passengers on jeep trips sitting beside the jeep staff member or on a Sunfish after supper sailing with Pete Morasca. Counselor touches. On and on and on and on. The myriad of favorite Camp memories will never stop rattling around in my head.
