IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Back in the field serving the need for water, Robert Walker

Happy endings can happen any time. Robert Walker, field superintendent for the Gasparilla Island Water Association, is a big believer in keeping the story going until that happy ending appears.

Working at GIWA is a case in point. Before he was hired by his long-time friend, Ron Bolton, who is executive director of GIWA, Robert had a great career in Hollywood, Fla., working at that city’s Utilities Department. Over the course of a couple of decades, he had worked his way up from being a meter reader to manager. He was making a great salary, contributing to a retirement fund. He was married and had raised two great sons. 

The future looked bright, and then it didn’t. Just as Robert was looking at traveling the world, his marriage was over after 24 and a half years. He decided to make changes in his life. He accepted the divorce, and found a new job at the utilities department at the City of Davie. 

He enjoyed the work, but there were issues making his career less than ideal. He was getting tired of the rat race of Florida’s East Coast. He and Ron Bolton had worked together in Hollywood, and had both worked for the Davie Utilities Department. 

“We’d known each other 30 years, and on a friend level he had filled me in on how [GIWA] was. I was so happy for him. And then he was hearing how things were for me at Davie, and he said, ‘You know, I have a position over here if you are interested. I could really use your knowledge over here, to share it with the guys, and get them up to speed in some areas.’”

That was a year and a half ago.

In some ways it might appear he was moving backward in his career. He would be overseeing a smaller crew, working for a smaller utility, and giving up his suits and an air-conditioned office for working on a truck and dealing with the heat. But Robert sees it as moving up the ladder, where he can do the work he loves, work with great people and contribute to the overall wellbeing of a community that appreciates his work.

“No matter the size of the system, it’s always about water loss, safety, public health,” he said. “That’s how you prioritize anything in public utilities.”  

Robert has been working outdoors for much of his life. He started cutting lawns to make extra money for school clothes. In high school he signed up for a horticulture class, which also was a self-sustaining school project. The students formed a club that had its own plant nursery. They landscaped the school grounds, attended plant shows, sold plants to private businesses and learned a lot more than how to grow succulents. They learned business concepts, how to get along with people of all backgrounds, and when the weather did not allow them to work with the plants, their teacher, Coach Purcell, had them listening to recordings of motivational speakers.

Not everyone in the class appreciated the speakers, but Robert believed Coach Purcell was an extraordinarily smart man. Coach Purcell was also the one who steered Robert into city services, first in public works and then into utilities. He started with the City of Hollywood, on their city-owned golf course, keeping the grounds in good shape during the summer. 

Robert’s work partner was a year ahead of him in school, but they worked well together. They did a good job that summer, earned decent money and the city put them on the payroll as extra help during vacations and other non-school days. That put them on the roster for the next summer’s employment, as well. That gig started in 10th grade and continued until graduation.

When graduation was getting close, Robert applied for a landscape architect scholarship and got it. However, he decided against accepting the scholarship. “I considered myself pretty smart,” Robert said, “but I wasn’t really a school person. I wanted to get out in the world and be an adult. My parents were upset when I told them I wasn’t going to college, and I was going to pursue work with the city. They felt I was making a huge mistake.”

Wanting to prove he could make it in the world, and not wanting to let his parents down, Robert applied himself. Then a serious budget crisis hit the city, with layoffs as a result. He found another position in the Public Works Department. Robert was assigned to work with the tree crew, and found himself cutting grass all day long. 

“Long story short, I took advantage of every growth opportunity that came along,” Robert said. “I went through every position you could work, all the way up to manager. The last four and a half years of my career in Hollywood was as manager, and it was the most rewarding job. I had a great rapport with everyone. I was overseeing 43 guys, two secretaries and a stockroom person.” 

When Robert was a 14-year-old, he and a girl named Cherie (pronounced shree), who also was 14, discovered they liked each other. Cherie eventually moved away and they lost touch. 

He moved on, but with her family’s sudden departure he continued to wonder where she had gone. “The move and separation were so sudden and unexplained that I never really got over it. This girl was really my first true love, and I always longed to know what had happened,” he recalled. 

After his divorce, he dated occasionally but nothing serious. Then, one night he got his iPad and typed Cherie’s name into a Facebook search. And it came back with a connection.

He was sure it was not the right girl, but he messaged her anyway, explaining how he had been looking for years for a girl with her same name. It was four days later that she did. It was a one-word answer: “Maybe.” The back-and-forth messaging went on all that day, and by the end of the day both had decided they had rediscovered their one true love. 

“It was like a switch turned on from back then to the present time. That time gap simply disappeared,” he said. She was living in Estero, south of Fort Myers. She had two nearly grown kids and a good job. They both felt there was a plan for them to be together, and they needed to follow it.

That was four years ago. They became engaged last December, and will be married this December. 

When the opportunity arose for Robert to work in Boca Grande, it was a happy development. “This is me 100 percent,” Robert said. “I like it laid back. I don’t like the rat race at all.” So, they bought a lot in South Gulf Cove, and are renting in Rotonda, waiting for housing and building costs to drop.  

He loves his work.

“I am not here to reinvent the wheel,” Robert admitted, “but to take my experience and see where it can help. I’ve learned, being in three different utilities now, everybody gets in a groove and they are trained and shown a way to do things. But when you see different things through your career, you can bring that to the table. That’s why Ron brought me over here, and it’s created some proficiencies, and the knowledge base is expanding. And that’s all great.” 

He likes being back in the field. He said it is good for his health. 

“You know, when you sit behind a desk after you’ve been physical all your career, funny things happen with your health. Your blood pressure goes up, and other things happen because you are less physical. I am not much about gyms, the job has always been my gym.” 

It’s been a year and a half that he has been in Boca Grande.

“Everybody I work with is great,” he said. “We’re like a small, tight-knit group. Anybody here would do anything for one another. It’s good. I like it. They are a good group of guys.”