VT Stories Oral History with Brooks Whitehurst, September 16, 2017 (Ms2016-015)

Ren Harman: So the conversation it's real conversational, real relaxed. If you need to run to the bathroom don't worry. I just have some questions. I've done a little bit of research on you. I know a few things about you that I can ask.

Brooks Whitehurst: Uh-oh.

Ren: [Chuckles]

Brooks: Time to leave.

Ren: I appreciate you taking the time to speak with us and have your story recorded for VT Stories and this ongoing initiative to learn more about Virginia Tech and the history of it by people who lived it. So I'll get started and just stay good afternoon. This is Ren Harman, the project director for VT Stories. Today is September 16, 2017 at about 2:48 PM. We are actually in Newman Library on the campus of Virginia Tech, and we have a very special guest with us today. The first question that I will ask you and this is the only time I will prompt you, if you could just say in a complete sentence, "My name is" and when you 1:00were born and where you were born.

Brooks: Okay. My name is Brooks Morris Whitehurst. I was born April 9, 1930 in Redding, Pennsylvania.

Ren: Thank you. What years did you attend Virginia Tech?

Brooks: It was 1947 to 1951.

Ren: And your major?

Brooks: Chemical engineering.

Ren: Before we get to your time at Virginia Tech can you tell me a little bit about growing up, what it was like for you as a child with your family and in growing up?

Brooks: It's been a long time ago. Well, we lived in West Redding, Pennsylvania and we left when I was 13 years old and came to Wytheville, Virginia. My father 2:00had a job there and transferred from Redding to Wytheville, and he was the personnel manager of The Wytheville Knitting Mills. He was determined that his son was going to be an engineer, so the rest of it follows logically.

Ren: Right.

Brooks: The only thing I was allowed to choose was which flavor of engineering.

Ren: [Laughs] So he made it that clear, that you were going to be an engineer.

Brooks: There was never any question about it, and that was more of the normal for that day and age, then of course now young people wouldn't believe it, but anyway, in my time that's what was done. Parents would pick out what their child 3:00was going to do and that's what they did. They better do it.

Ren: Knowing a little bit about Wytheville, I grew up in Richlands, which is southwest Virginia, what were kind of the main local economies of that area during that time as a child growing up?

Brooks: Well, in terms of Wytheville you've got to realize this is World War II that was going on. The economy, the largest industry in town was Wytheville Knitting Mills, and there were some other businesses and things like that, but that was the largest employer.

Ren: As a child growing up during the time of World War II were you aware of what was going on and how much did your parents talk about the war, or was it not something that was really discussed?

Brooks: Well, it was discussed quite a bit. One of the things that I can 4:00remember, my grandmother lived in Westchester, Pennsylvania and on December 7, 1941 we had gone down to visit her and living in Redding it was only 50 miles from where she lived, and we heard on the radio that there had been an attack on Pearl Harbor. And dad had to stop I guess to get gas or something, and there was a gas station on the way. Everybody was hanging around the radio to find out what the latest news was, so that was the first.

Ren: Right. What about your mother?

Brooks: Well she grew up in eastern Virginia around Gloucester and down that 5:00way. My father was a teacher in a trade school at the [00:05:13] Industries and mother was a homemaker.

Ren: Right. Did you have any brothers or sisters?

Brooks: I had a sister. She was 9 years older than I was.

Ren: Did you guys spend a lot of time together, growing up playing together, your sister and yourself?

Brooks: At this point I can't remember.

Ren: Yeah, been a while.

Brooks: It's been a while, yeah.

Ren: Can I ask you, you said that your father was really interested in you becoming an engineer. How did Virginia Tech come into the conversation?

Brooks: Well, Virginia Tech came in the conversation, it was a school in 6:00Virginia and the tuition for an in-state student was a lot less than an out of state, so one thing led to another and that was here.

Ren: Right. What was your first memory of Virginia Tech when you first stepped on campus, do you remember what it smelled like, what it looked like, anybody about it?

Brooks: Well, you've got to remember, when I came to Virginia Tech I went to the Radford Arsenal, which was called Rad Tech. I don't remember any of the questions or the answers to those questions.

Ren: Can you remember about the Radford Arsenal? Can you tell maybe listeners who maybe don't know why you were staying at Radford Arsenal?

Brooks: Well, the number of return veterans, I was of the freshman class of 1947 and the number of return veterans was tremendous. The number that sticks in my 7:00head is something between 40 and 45% of the student body was made up of return veterans. We had return veterans over there and everybody was in the Cadet Corps.

Ren: Mandatory.

Brooks: Mandatory, that's right. The only story that I can remember when I was in the Cadet Corps and we had to eat a certain way and all kinds of stuff like that.

Ren: A square meal?

Brooks: A square meal. Anyway, there was no-smoking signs all over the mess hall. Of course civilians were obviously eating there. Well, in the mess hall, 8:00and sitting behind me I'm going to guess maybe 25 feet, there was a person eating supper. He finished and he lit up a cigarette. He was I'm going to say in his mid-30s, and it just so happened that particular day that the commandant of the Cadet Corps, the Army guy was there. He went over to this fellow and said, "You know you're not allowed to smoke in the mess hall," and the guy says, "Who says?" "Well I say." "Well who are you?" "Well I'm a major in the United States Army." There were some words we will have to delete. [Laughs]

Ren: I can imagine.

Brooks: That were exchanged, and he told the young major, he said, "When you 9:00were in military school or officer school didn't they teach you to salute a superior officer?" And the guy's face dropped, "Well yes." "Do you realize you're talking to a full colonel?" And this fellow had a battlefield commission of colonel and he was a wing commander in Claire Chennault's Flying Tigers, and he came to Virginia Tech. He wanted to get a degree in civil engineering, that's what he wanted to do and that's the reason he was there. But he obviously wouldn't put up with any foolishness from anybody.

Ren: Right. [Laughs] It sounds like it. You said that a large percentage of the 10:00students that lived at Radford Arsenal were returning vets. What was the relationship between them and kind of the incoming freshmen in their rat year? Did they kind of stay to themselves or what was that dynamic kind of like?

Brooks: I wouldn't say they stayed... There was a good mix. We were kids, which is a fact, we were.

Ren: Right.

Brooks: I mean these guys had seen some pretty rough stuff and they were oh, I'm going to say at least 5 years, maybe 5 to 10 years older than we were. I don't have any negative thing from them. I certainly was not treated badly by them. They were good guys.

Ren: Did they talk a lot about their time during the war their time in the service?

Brooks: No, they didn't.

Ren: I have a question and there might be an easy answer, but you had lived at the Radford Arsenal, so did you take classes there or you transported to the main campus?

Brooks: Oh no, all the classes were taught there, the freshman class. Now, there was a shuttle bus that ran from the Radford Arsenal over to the main campus about once an hour, so if you had to come over here for whatever administrative things, that kind of thing, you could get on a bus and come over and go back and that kind of thing.

Ren: Did you take the bus a lot? Did you come to the main campus a whole lot?

Brooks: I can't say I came a whole lot, but I came over here on occasion.

Ren: To do things?

Brooks: Well, originally when I enrolled at Virginia Tech, I enrolled in aeronautical engineering, and one of the things I learned in discussing it with 12:00people who came from the military and the war, there were virtually no jobs for aeronautical engineers. Now this was in 1947 and that industry was not growing, and the chemical industry was growing, so I said well, it makes sense, I like chemistry, so I came over to the main campus and went through the various things you have to do. So I switched during my freshman year to chemical engineering. That's where I am today.

Ren: Right. Notable professors or advisors that you can remember that were influential to you? Do you remember any names?

Brooks: The name there was a person named Fred Bull. Fred was an associate 13:00professor, professor of chemical engineering, and he later became I think dean of the graduate school, but he was an excellent person. He knew young people and he could read them like a book. He knew who was working and knew who was goofing off.

Ren: Were you one of those students goofing off?

Brooks: No. I was too young and too scared to do that.

Ren: Right. A lot of these interviews that we've conducted, especially with gentlemen from your era talk a lot about their rat year, and kind of some of the stories surrounding that year. Do you remember any hijinks or difficult times during your first year, your rat year?

Brooks: In my first year, the rat year, well, when I was about 15 or 14 years 14:00old I had rheumatic fever, and some of the things that you had to do in the Cadet Corps like standing, standing in particular which is true today, I was told, the physicians had told me you're going to live with this for the rest of your life, which is a fact Sandy. [Laughs] Rheumatic was known in those days, it would hit usually the joints in your knees or your heart, and so in that sense I got lucky and it hit my knees. Actually I think two or three months into the Cadet Corps program I was given a medical charge, so I wasn't in the Cadet Corps at that point, but I stayed in school.

Ren: Did you stay at the Radford Arsenal?

Brooks: Yes.

Ren: After your freshman year did you stay there all four years at the Arsenal?

Brooks: Oh no, just the freshman year.

Ren: So after your freshman year where did you move to after that?

Brooks: Of course came to the main campus. It seems to me it was in dorm 6, but don't hold me to that.

Ren: What are some of your favorite memories or experiences that you can remember? I know as you say it's been some years ago, but is there anything that kind of sticks out in your mind, some favorite memories?

Brooks: Well, memorable time, my wife went to Radford College and I met her in 15:00my junior year. We're still married after 66 years.

Ren: Wow.

Brooks: And so that was one thing I did right.

Ren: Can you tell me about how you met?

Brooks: Yeah, there was a friend and we met on a blind date.

Ren: Did you attend any ring dances together?

Brooks: Several of the dances, yes. It was in the days of the big band era, Tommy Dorsey and those people like that.

Ren: Those were big events at that time, the dances with the big bands, weren't they?

Brooks: They were.

Ren: How many years?

Brooks: I graduated 66 years ago. We're back beyond that now because the dances were, I started those in sophomore, junior, senior years.

Ren: So late 40s?

Brooks: 48, 49.

Ren: That's a big one meeting your wife. Were there any other favorite memories or experiences that you can remember?

Brooks: Well I graduated. [Laughs]

Ren: Right. I'm sure your mother and father were extremely proud that you graduated, especially your father was wanting you to be an engineer. Were they just overjoyed?

Brooks: Well I would say so, yes.

Ren: Kind of the flip side of that question, were there some difficult or hard experiences that you can remember, trying times, either your freshman year or years after?

Brooks: Well, chemical engineering, and I can't speak for what it is today, was 17:00considered the toughest program on the campus. It actually was listed as a 4-year program. It wasn't, it was a 41/2-year program. You had to go to a lab session between your junior and senior year. That was a requirement, and if you didn't pass that or do well you were out of there. And I don't remember the exact percentage of people that enrolled in chemical engineering or those who graduated, but it was a very very high percentage that went on to another course or flunked out or whatever.

Ren: I meant to ask you this earlier when we first started, your first name 18:00Brooks, where does that come from?

Brooks: It's an old family name. The Whitehurst name, William Whitehurst came to what's now the U.S., Back Bay Virginia in 1625 from Cardiff in the Wales. And then the Morris, which is my middle name, they came over in I think it was 1681. They basically were farmers, fishermen, farmers, because they all settled in eastern Virginia, Princess Ann County, Back Bay, all that area. Of course 19:00Princess Ann County doesn't exist now, that's Virginia Beach, but in those days it did, and the family stayed there for I guess 2 or 300 years. In fact it's considered I'm the only Yankee in the family.

Ren: [Laughs] Pretty good. I like it, I was just wondering.

Brooks: One of the more interesting things though, my middle name is Morris and what the history books, my daughter has done the history of the family, in the year I think it was around 1803 or something or in that vicinity, there were 20:00three Morris boys in the Norfolk area, and they got in a fuss over something, I have no idea what, and two of them left and one of them stayed.

Well, unbeknown, and I didn't know it at the time, but my first job out at the school was in Morristown, Tennessee. That was one of those brothers, and they had a tavern, and there was two of them there with that tavern. Daniel Boone was a frequent visitor. The guy who went to Texas, you know it and it escapes me... Who was the fellow who went to Texas?

Ren: I'm not sure.

Brooks: Well, anyway, this person got their wedding license to Davy Crockett, finally get it out.

Ren: There you go.

Brooks: Pricilla Whitehurst and Davy Crockett got their marriage license at the courthouse in Dandridge, Tennessee, which was only eight miles from where we lived when we lived in Tennessee. I don't know what happened, but anyway, one of the Morris brothers went with Davy Crockett to Texas and that's the end of the story.

Ren: Okay. I was just curious, just wondering. I like Brooks. I like that name. 22:00I have step-sons Brady and Brice, so I like 'B' names. After you graduated in 1951 with a bachelor of science in chemical engineering where did your career kind of take you after that?

Brooks: Well, I went to work for the American Enka Corporation, which they made viscose rayon in lowland Tennessee. That was about eight miles out of Morristown. I can give you all of that. It's written down if you need it. I've got a resume.

Ren: Yeah, that would be great just to look at it, just to have it for a good file.

Brooks: Yeah, it can answer a lot of those questions.

Ren: Okay, sounds good.

Brooks: But I left there. We had three children there and I left in I guess it 23:00was the fall of 1956, and I got a job with a Virginia Carolina chemical company in Richmond. And I was there and then I left them in '63 and went to a company called Texaco Experiment Incorporated and they did government contract research, and I was with them for three years. Then when the Texas Gulf Sulfur Company started up the operation in eastern North Carolina in late '66-67 I went with them as a start-up engineer. And after three years I was the engineering technical manager, so that happened.

In 1981 Texas Gulf was purchased by a French company called [00:25:36 Alvaquatain, and Alvaquatain] was two-thirds owned by the French government, and 18 of the managers says, "We're not working for a community." And that's what it was. I mean the head honcho, [00:25:51 Francois Madeiran], and so we left and I started my own consulting business, and that's where I am today.

Ren: How has your education from Virginia Tech kind of played out through your life, and what has it mean to you to have a degree from Virginia Tech in chemical engineering?

Brooks: Well, I would say the thing is problem-solving, because that's what I've been doing, still am. There's a lot more detail in here.

Ren: If someone just simply says Virginia Tech what's the first thing you think of?

Brooks: I don't know that I can answer the question. [Chuckles] I will probably 26:00ask them where they're from, when they graduated, those kinds of things.

Ren: Right, right. I will jump to some more recent things. I know you're kind of involved in a few things on campus and the Wood Enterprise Institute. Can you talk a little bit about your involvement with that group and being a friend to the College, the College of Natural Resources and Environment in 2011 and 2012? Can you talk about how you got involved and what your involvement there has been?

Brooks: Woodworking has always been a hobby, and my wife's father was a cabinetmaker, and so I have been involved with making things if you want to call it that. I think it was Mike Kelly who then was the dean, is the one that sort of got me involved in that sort of thing and it just went from there. I don't 27:00think there was any grand plan of doing it, and so many things have happened that way. But one of the more interesting things, in January of this year one of the students that we're working with now, her name is Abigail Baxter, Abby was giving a presentation over on the eastern shore, the research station over there. So we thought we would go over there and listen to Abby's talk and just give her some support and that kind of thing, so we did. And we had a meeting with Mark Ryder. I don't know if you know Mark or not. He's I think the director of the station or something like that. We had a meeting with him and he was talking about his interest. Well her interest was soybeans. Mark is the tomato 28:00specialist for the State of Virginia, and so we were interested in getting tomatoes into Abby's program.

And then so many things have happened to me this way, and he says, "Oh, by the way, have you ever heard of chicken ash?" I said, "I haven't heard of chicken ash, but 8 years ago I worked on a program for the Weyerhaeuser Company on turkey ash in North Carolina," and I said, "I think it's similar." So then he described what the problem was. And they raise a lot of chickens in that part of Virginia and Maryland and so on.

Ren: Right.

Brooks: Getting rid of the [live] waste that's produced its already saturated, 29:00so they had to incinerate it. So he asked me what can we do. I said, "Give me a 5-gallon bucket of it." So he did. I carried it back with me and there's been many many things, but at this point they are already evaluating chicken ash coating on urea. I just told Abby we successfully put it on potash, which is for soybeans, put it on ureas for corn. We put it on ammonium phosphate which is used for corn and soybeans.

Ren: Yeah.

Brooks: I would say in my life so many of the things that have happened is 30:00responding to unplanned events just like this thing today. I mean this wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for the...which you've already heard about.

Ren: Right.

Brooks: I told Emily Hutchins when they were very upset about the name being left off and that sort of thing, and I told her, I said, "If that's the worst thing that ever happens to me I've got it made."

Ren: Right.

Brooks: [Laughs] But that's the thing in a nutshell. Now I've got the details for you, and I've had many many honors along. The one in the last year in '16 was given the Sir Isaac Newton Science Award by the International Biographical 31:00Center. This year I was selected as what they call the Engineer of the Year Program from there. But the important thing, which is and I guess Sandy is going to be involved in that too, you may be, I've been selected by Who's Who, because I'm in Who's Who, to do a program just very similar to what you're doing about my career, and what I want to do in that is I really don't want to talk about me that much. I told some of them today at lunchroom that I've really had two careers. I've had one where I worked for industry and then when I got in the 32:00consulting business things changed and I work with a lot of young people

Like one of the things we're so tickled with, I'll give you an example of this. There was a girl that came to work for us, she had been to Virginia Tech, got a degree in animal science, and she came to work for us. One summer we needed some help. A real smart girl, and I asked her one day, I said, her name was Cristy Edwards, I asked her, I said, "Have you ever thought about getting a graduate degree?" "Yes." She said, "But animal science." I said, "Well Christy, a master's degree in animal science and 2.50 will get you a cup of coffee." I've 33:00told Allan Grant that and see he's heard that.

Ren: Right.

Brooks: Well anyway, I said, "But now if you want to go into the field of soil science," I said, "It's pretty much wide open and there are jobs everywhere." So anyway, I said, "Just tell me what you want to do." "But on the soil side they are saying I don't have all the course work." I said, "Answer the question. Do you or don't you?" She said, "Well I want to do it." I said, "Okay." So I called Mark Ally, who was a professor of agronomy here and so on, told him what was up and he said, "Yeah, we can fix that deficiency and she can enroll in August," so that's what happened and she got her master's degree.

Ren: Yeah.

Brooks: And after the master's degree she gave a presentation at the National 34:00Meeting of the Soil Science Site of America and she stole the show. She was recruited by the University of Nebraska and Kansas State to get a PhD. But one of the funniest experiences that I had with that, she was making a decision about Nebraska or Kansas State, and she said, "But if I go to these places it's so far away from you, if I need materials you can't get them to me that easy." And I said, "Christy, with FedEx and UPS today if you go to Australia we can get them to you," and the phone went silent.

"Do you know something you haven't told me?" I said, "I don't know what you're 35:00talking about Christy." What I found out was two hours before that telephone conversation she had got an email from the University of Adelaide wanting her to do a PhD there. [Laughs]

Ren: Wow.

Brooks: Christy has subsequently graduated from Kansas State, and she is now the manager of [00:36:35 Ground] Services for the Potash Corporation. It's the largest fertilizer company in the world.

Ren: She has a bachelor's degree from Virginia Tech?

Brooks: Yeah.

Ren: Have you worked and hired a lot of Virginia Tech graduates in your time, both in private and industry practices?

Brooks: Not really. Christy was some help we needed for one summer on something 36:00that she was qualified to do, so that's how that happened.

Ren: I want to ask you a little bit, since you graduated did you come back to Virginia Tech a lot? Did you see the campus a whole lot? Did you see a change over time?

Brooks: No, I really didn't.

Ren: Looking at it now and how it was when you were here, what changes, I know there's probably been a lot, but what changes do you see and what do you think about some of the changes just by looking at it?

Brooks: Well, I'm positive about the changes, but you have to understand that if I didn't have help from Emily and Sandra and stuff like that I don't have a clue of where I'm at or how to get there.

Ren: Is some buildings still recognizable, Burruss maybe?

Brooks: Burruss is recognizable, yeah, but the Student Activities Building, 37:00which is now Squires, that's changed so much. They used to have a pool hall in there and a bowling alley and stuff like that.

Ren: It's probably not the same one, but there is a pool hall and a bowling alley, yeah. Might be a different one though.

Brooks: I don't know.

Ren: Might have to find out. Are there any changes at the University that you would like to see or any advice you would have for the next generation of leaders and the people that are making changes as this University continues to grow and get larger?

Brooks: This is not just specifically Virginia Tech, the one thing that I'm always concerned about in our young people, they have become what I'm going to call addicted to these electronic gadgets.

And to the point that they don't build relationships with people, and that's the 38:00one thing that I was doing in so many job changing and all that. I could call somebody and say such and such and so forth, and they're not doing that. What's going to happen at some day down the road it's going to hit them in the face and they won't know. That's not something that Virginia Tech can solve. It's not a Virginia Tech problem.

Ren: It's a problem everywhere. The lack of being able to communicate with people and being able to talk to people, I see it in classes I've taught and being around people younger, years younger than I am.

Brooks: Well, when I talk to some of the people, there's a program at Roanoke College and it's an entrepreneur type program, and my favorite story about 39:00communications and about how important they are, and sometimes it's very difficult to get the message across. And it starts out that this little old lady, she was living by herself, and maybe you heard it, I don't know, she was living by herself and she wanted somebody to talk to. So she said, "Well I'll get me a parrot." So she went to the pet store and she got all the paraphernalia first-class, got the parrot and took it home." Well, she started to talk to the parrot and all the parrot would do was cuss at her, and this went on for three or four days and she was getting irritated with this. So, she reached in the cage and grabbed the parrot and shook him and all he did was cuss her the whole 40:00time. She said, "I need to cool him off," so she put him in the refrigerator. After a few minutes in the refrigerator he shut-up. She really didn't want to hurt the parrot so after about 20 minutes she reached in the refrigerator and got the parrot out. The parrot says, "I've got a question for you." She says, "Well what is it?" "That turkey that's in the refrigerator what did it do?"

Ren: [Laughs] I'll have to remember that. That's a great story. That's funny, but it's true. Communicate.

Brooks: It's communication. She finally communicated. [Laughs]

Ren: That's true. That's so funny.

What would you like people to know about you that maybe they don't? You seem to be a little reserved talking about yourself, but what would you like people to know about you?

Brooks: I would like for people to... I like to help people. Christy is an example. Abby, Clara, there's a group of students at Roanoke College, the Wood Enterprise students. I've got a list of thank you notes in here that I brought from the students at Wood Enterprise. It will make you cry when you read them. I would rather be remembered as somebody who liked to help young people. But I like to help young people help themselves. I'm not interested in working with deadbeats. [Laughs]

Ren: Right. The students that you help through various gifts and things to the Wood Enterprise Institute, you talked a little bit about how you got started in that, but what was the desire to, you said just because you're interested in woodworking and you wanted to help out younger folks.

Brooks: Well, the thing of it is, in this particular case a relationship developed between me and the professor, Earl Klein, and one thing just led to another. You know we didn't sit down one day and come up with a grand plan.

Ren: Do you think that you learned any of those character traits, did you pick those up when you were here for your years as an undergrad or do you think that's always been embedded in you wanting to help others?

Brooks: I can't answer that question. My wife is very much like that. She loves to help people.

Ren: So you're almost a team.

Brooks: Yeah, that's a good way to put it.

Ren: 60-plus years being married.

Brooks: Yeah, 66.

Ren: That's an achievement for sure.

Brooks: I got my degree in chemical engineering in June and I got married in July. How about that?

Ren: Oh wow. I asked you about yourself; what would you like people to know about Virginia Tech that maybe they don't? Positive or negative, what would you like people to know about this place?

Brooks: It's a good school. Go there.

Ren: The ringing endorsement. [Laughs] Right. I guess the last question, is there anything you would like to say that I didn't ask you about or anything you 44:00want to say for the record?

I appreciate you taking the time to sit down with us today and to tell us a little bit about your story. One of our, class of 1951, you're one of our young graduates as we would say.

Brooks: He needs eye glasses. [Laughs]

Ren: If there is anything you would like to say to close this out I will kind of leave it up to you.

Brooks: Well, we can close it out. I love my story. I think Sandra has already heard it and people love my story. I've got a new job. Have you heard the story?

Ren: I have not.

Brooks: I've got a new job. I got a job as a psychiatrist in a flowerpot factory. They needed somebody to take care of the cracked pots.

Ren: [Laughs] I've got to write these down so I can remember them. Thank you so 45:00much Mr. Brooks Whitehurst, class of 1951. I really appreciate you taking the time to speak with us this afternoon. I hope you have a good rest of your time here and please come back sir. Thank you so much. Nice to meet you.