For 15 years, Ervin
”
Bud
”
Grimsley knew the Veterans Memorial Building like a salesman
knows his pitch, like a mechanic knows a car, like musicians know
their instruments
– as a maintenance man who loved his work.
For 15 years, Ervin “Bud” Grimsley knew the Veterans Memorial Building like a salesman knows his pitch, like a mechanic knows a car, like musicians know their instruments – as a maintenance man who loved his work.
A Hollister resident, Grimsley, 88, was the county’s maintenance superintendent from 1974 to 1990. He oversaw several county-owned buildings aside from the Veterans Memorial Building, including the county courthouse.
On Thursday, Grimsley, from Gilroy Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, reminisced about his experiences at the building and said he hoped to attend its rededication on Memorial Day.
Without a speck of doubt in his time-worn eyes, Grimsley said he was wholly committed to the job’s many intricacies and remains sentimentally attached to the building.
“I took quite a bit of pride in it, you bet,” he said. “I should say so.”
His peers witnessed Grimsley’s personal dedication on a daily basis, whether he fixed a broken door hinge or waxed a floor. His passion was unmistakable.
“He took a dedicated interest in it, whatever he did,” said Fulton Picetti, a former member the Veterans Memorial Building Commission.
During the early 1970s, before Grimsley or the Commission, the building fell victim to flawed management and several fights and other incidents involving the police at events held there.
Grimsley, who was born in Iowa and moved to California in 1945, worked at the Hollister Municipal Airport as a carpenter before accepting the maintenance job with the county.
In 1974, the county changed the Veterans Building’s management structure and formed the Commission to operate it, according to Picetti, who is known to his friends as “Bumpy.”
Once appointed, the Commission approached the county Board of Supervisors requesting drastic measures to restore a sense of respectability to the building, according to Picetti. The Board placed a 30-day moratorium on all public use of the landmark to allow for an extensive clean-up and gave the Commission time to reorganize the facility’s operations.
The commissioners, desperate for solutions, received a “godsend,” Picetti said, when Grimsley came along shortly thereafter.
At the outset, Picetti did not realize the mass of assets Grimsley would bring to the operation. Picetti said he eventually learned Grimsley would maintain the building more efficiently, and show more dedication, than anyone before or after that 15-year stint.
Grimsley, according to peers, not only saved the county trouble through his exhaustive work ethic but also saved taxpayers money on several occasions because of his multi-vocational talents.
“I don’t think we could have functioned and had it as self-sustaining as we did, definitely, without Bud’s help,” Picetti said. “To keep the costs down and eliminate dollars you’d have to spend to get people to do the painting and repair the equipment and things like that.”
Grimsley and his crew – which included three maintenance assistants and five janitors – also performed extensive clean-ups of the Main Hall on Sunday mornings after the building’s many Saturday night dances.
“He was immaculate,” Picetti said. “When he had the crew down there, he worked right with them, and it was not uncommon to see Bud on the end of a mop.”
On top of those early weekend mornings, Grimsley worked the dances as well – but not in a maintenance capacity.
“Bumpy and I sold beer,” Grimsley said. Picetti added that all profits from beer sales went to agencies at Hazel Hawkins Hospital.
Grimsley left his position shortly after the county Board of Supervisors dismantled the Commission in 1990. Before retiring, he went to work as a truck driver for his son Marvin’s company, San Benito Rockery.
Grimsley will move back to Hollister from the Gilroy Healthcare center sometime next week. Marvin said the family will try to arrange for his father’s presence at the Veterans Memorial Building rededication ceremony Monday – an opportunity to visit old pals, and a chance to see a Hollister shrine and countless memories reawakened.
“I’m proud of that building,” he said.
