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 00:01:00in a complete sentence, "My name is" and when you

were 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 00:02:00and came to Wytheville, Virginia. My father

had 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 00:03:00their child

was 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. 00:04:00One of the things that I can

remember, 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 00:05:00and down that

way. 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 00:06:00a school in

Virginia 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 00:07:00and the number of return veterans was tremendous. The number that sticks in my

head 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 00:08:00mess hall,

and 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, 00:09:00and he told the young major, he said, "When you

were 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. 00:10:00You said that a large percentage of the

students 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: 00:11:00Did 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 00:12:00engineering, and one of the things I learned in discussing it with

people 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 00:13:00Bull. Fred was an associate

professor, 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 00:14:0015 or 14 years

old 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 00:15:00and I met her in

my 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 00:16:00were, 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: 00:17:00Well, chemical engineering, and I can't speak for what it is today, was

considered 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 00:18:00started, your first name

Brooks, 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 00:19:00Ann County, Back Bay, all that area. Of course

Princess 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 00:20:00vicinity, there were

three 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... 00:21:00Who 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 00:22:00wondering. I like Brooks. I like that name.

I 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 00:23:00there and I left in I guess it

was 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 00:24:00manager, 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 00:25:00business, 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. 00:26:00[Chuckles] I will probably

ask 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 00:27:00thing and it just went from there. I don't

think 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. 00:28:00Well her interest was soybeans. Mark is the tomato

specialist 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. 00:29:00Brooks: Getting rid of the [live] waste that's produced its already saturated,

so 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 00:30:00life so many of the things that have happened is

responding 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 00:31:00Newton Science Award by the International Biographical

Center. 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 00:32:00where I worked for industry and then when I got in the

consulting 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." 00:33:00 I've

told 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: 00:34:00And after the master's degree she gave a presentation at the National

Meeting 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 00:35:00you haven't told me?" I said, "I don't know what you're

talking 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 00:36:00help we needed for one summer on something

that 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, 00:37:00but the Student Activities Building,

which 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. 00:38:00And to the point that they don't build relationships with people, and that's the

one 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 00:39:00College and it's an entrepreneur type program, and my favorite story about

communications 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 00:40:00cuss her the whole

time. 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 00:41:00 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. 00:42:00 [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 00:43:00 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 00:44:00say that I didn't ask you about or anything you

want 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: 00:45:00[Laughs] I've got to write these down so I can remember them. Thank you so

much 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.