**00:01**
Hey, Madeline, did you make it to the Beaufort International Film Festival this past weekend?

**00:05**
I did not, but I heard that we had a movie star in the, what would you call this, the studio this past show.

**00:11**
Exactly, yeah. Robert DeLoach, he's 98 years old, and he was in the film festival. So they had a film called A Breakfast to Remember. I didn't actually make it over there myself. Hopefully we'll get to watch it soon, and hopefully our audience will as well. But it was an honor, really, to interview Robert in this episode that we have. Did you have anything that you liked about this episode in particular?

**00:37**
I said it before, I thought he was a cute old man, and I really enjoyed watching it and hearing the different things he had to say. How about you?

**00:45**
Awesome. Yeah, I mean, it was an honor. I mean, just the entire episode was just listening, learning from him. I mean, he has so much experience. So much wisdom, life experience, engineering experience. I mean, he comes from, you know, World War II, and he grew up right here in Beaufort. He went off, was in the Navy during World War II, and then came back to Beaufort, to Parris Island. And, you know, this show isn't all about Parris Island, but it's interesting how the link between, for example, Charlie and Stoney, and now Robert, and how they have all been through Parris Island in their own way. He didn't go Parris Island from a Marine Corps standpoint, but he actually built a lot of the, and designed a lot of the stuff over there. So if you don't know what Parris Island is, it's where they make Marines. And so go check out Charlie's episode and Stoney's episode as well. But this isn't about Charlie or Stoney. This is about Robert DeLoach. And let's go. Let's go ahead and jump into that.

**02:22**
Welcome to Enhance, an AEC podcast where we learn the why behind AEC professionals so that you can learn your why.

**02:29**
Well, Robert, welcome to Enhance. Welcome to the Enhance podcast. Appreciate you coming on today. It's a real honor to have you and a blessing to have you. Have you ever been on a podcast before?

**02:43**
No. Okay. Well, so what we're doing really, so we're Enhance, an AEC podcast. So architects, engineers, and contractor. Okay. So the construction industry, basically. And you're somebody that I believe that people in the AEC industry would like to learn a lot about. Because you have a very extensive experience in construction and engineering. And I wanted to find out more about that today. So that's really what this is all about. Your history, all the way back from the beginning. I see you've got some notes here. So we've had a few people on, but nobody brought notes. So that's pretty exciting.

**03:26**
Well, my memory is short, so I have to have notes. Yeah.

**03:31**
Awesome.

**03:31**
But anyhow, well, I was born in Beaufort. Okay. South Carolina on French Street in 1926. And I lived there until I was eight years old when I moved to Rebo Road. It was still dirt. Okay. Rebo Road was dirt then. They paved it that year. But growing up in Beaufort was a lot different than growing up today, I can tell you. But I graduated from Beaufort High School in 1943, in May of 1943, and knew I'd be eligible for the draft in 1944. So I went ahead and didn't want to be a foot soldier, so I went and joined the Navy, took a test in front of the Navy, passed it, and entered the Title VIII program. Okay.

**04:31**
What is the Title VIII program, by the way?

**04:34**
Title VIII program was the Navy's equivalent to enlisting men for aerial gunners and radio people. So, and then I went to Clemson in June of 1943. I was 16. Okay. And took mechanical engineering, went in the Navy, got drafted, in effect, in 1945. Wow.

**05:05**
And from 1945, went to Naval Air Technical Training Center out of Memphis, Tennessee, and spent 20 weeks there, learning how to be an aerial gunner on an airplane and a communications guy, a radio guy. From Memphis, I went to Jacksonville, Florida. And in Jacksonville, Florida, I went to Yellowtail, Florida, which was a gunnery school.

**05:39**
Okay.

**05:40**
I happened to be there when those five Avengers flew into the Bermuda Triangle. I heard that while it happened on the radio.

**05:49**
Oh, wow. Okay.

**05:51**
That's how old I am.

**05:55**
Anyhow, before I was assigned to a squadron, they dropped the bomb in Japan. Oh, wow. So I didn't need to go. And I was transferred from there then to Glencoe, Georgia, which is a blimp base. Okay. They were still monitoring the coast, the submarines. And from there, in August of 1946, I was transferred to, oh, it was a little early, I think it was June 1946, to Charleston to be discharged. Okay. Out of the Navy. That's the year I went back to Clemson.

**06:43**
So you really didn't leave the States during that time?

**06:50**
No. Never went overseas.

**06:50**
Okay.

**06:50**
And went to Clemson. When I went in 1943, there weren't but about 350 ROTC students, because all the seniors and juniors had gone to war. Right. Okay.

**07:07**
And now, when you say ROTC, was there any other students besides ROTC, or was it strictly Army?

**07:12**
Oh, the Navy and the Army had training people at Clemson. Yeah.

**07:18**
But was there other students there besides the ROTC?

**07:23**
Only military.

**07:24**
It was a military school.

**07:25**
Yeah, military. Well, the United States Army and the Navy operated that Title VIII program from there as well. And I think also Title XII. But anyhow, that's all the students that were, like me, not in the, officially in the Navy yet. Okay.

**07:48**
But then when you went back in 46-

**07:51**
Then I went back in 46, and from mechanical engineering, graduated in 1950.

**08:01**
Okay. Yeah.

**08:02**
Just as a present value of money issue, I was offered, the biggest job I was offered at the time was with the South Carolina Department of Transportation.

**08:18**
Yeah.

**08:18**
$149 a month.

**08:21**
Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. I'd like to compute that one. How much would that be today?

**08:27**
I don't know. But anyhow, my father said, I don't know. I didn't send you to school to make $149 a month, so he put me to work selling cars. Okay. I wasn't very good. You're not a good salesman? No. But anyhow, in 1951, a friend of mine from Clemson came down to Parris Island with a construction group to build Quonset huts. Okay. And asked me if I wanted to go to work with them as an instrument man, and I did. Okay. I worked there for one year, and then a position became open with the Parris Island Public Works and Engineering, and I was a draftsman.

**09:14**
Okay.

**09:15**
In 1951, the latter part. Now, were you using AutoCAD? It didn't exist. I know. But I went to Clemson. The only calculator I had was not electric. It was a slip stick.

**09:30**
Okay. Slide rule?

**09:32**
Slide rule. Yeah.

**09:33**
And you called it a slip stick? Yeah. Slip stick.

**09:36**
That's what I called it. Okay. Because it slipped. Yeah.

**09:38**
I don't even know how to use one. I think I got one here, but I don't know how to use it.

**09:43**
You could do anything on that stick. You can do it on that calculator. Okay.

**09:50**
But even calculators hadn't been invented yet. Wow. Weren't available for students.

**10:00**
So you were at Parris Island Public Works? Parris Island. And you were an instrument man, and also you did that for a year, and then you moved into drafting.

**10:08**
That's correct.

**10:09**
So how long did you do that?

**10:11**
I was in drafting about two years, and then was promoted. They needed an engineer, so a mechanical engineer for the government, and was there for 38 years. Actually, 37 years, 10 months, and three days.

**10:30**
Not that anybody's counting. Nobody's counting. Yeah.

**10:32**
But I was there that long, and a lot of what we did at Parris Island is still there.

**10:41**
Okay. The things that you built and designed.

**10:43**
The things that we built at Parris Island.

**10:46**
Now, some people, if they've been listening to this podcast, they know what Parris Island is, but not everybody does.

**10:54**
Marine Corps Recruit Training Depot.

**10:59**
One of two, right? In the U.S.? Yeah. One of two, and then the other goes to the other. Yeah, so they make Marines there.

**11:04**
That's correct.

**11:05**
Right, and you helped make the base.

**11:08**
Oh, yeah. We had a lot to do with the permanent facilities. They developed what's called a master plan because of the Second World War. They were totally ill-equipped to train and get people into the war early. But when I retired from the Navy, they were pretty good. As a mechanical engineer, I went to work the next day for Buford Engineering Services, which I had been doing moonlighting work for for some time. A lot of stuff around Buford that still exists, we did. Right.

**11:49**
And you did the mechanical engineering for them as well? Yes. Okay.

**11:54**
But the BES, I was one of three partners.

**12:04**
Okay.

**12:04**
So, I retired in 2019.

**12:09**
Okay.

**12:10**
I think that was, how long ago was that?

**12:13**
Well, that's about six years ago. I was 91. Okay.

**12:19**
Now I'm 98.

**12:20**
You're 98? Yeah.

**12:21**
Okay.

**12:23**
That's amazing.

**12:25**
A lot of the stuff that we did to make facilities permanent, we called it brick and mortar. That was an object. Then to build permanent structures on Parasol, which we did. And they're just tearing down some of them make more room for people.

**12:52**
Parasol now trains about, has on board about 5,000 recruits.

**12:58**
Every cycle? Yeah.

**13:01**
They graduate about 20,000 a year. Okay.

**13:05**
And that's about history, about career. But a lot of changes to the systems and to the way we design facilities from the beginning. Now, we had to build them in 1951, 1952, 1953. You couldn't go to the catalog and pick a unit. You had to pick a compressor and pick the parts to make a system.

**13:40**
Okay. And your focus was mechanical? Mechanical, like HVAC engineering. HVAC.

**13:46**
Actually, at Parasol, we did all the disciplines, mechanical. We did plumbing. We did air conditioning and utilities. We even did those things.

**14:00**
Okay. And is there any special systems there that they use for heating and cooling?

**14:08**
We did the first system in South Carolina.

**14:17**
Okay.

**14:18**
We had a steam absorption system.

**14:27**
Yeah. Which is a chiller. A chiller. Okay. Using steam. We did the first one in South Carolina.

**14:27**
They actually paid us to do it. Meaning? South Carolina Electric and Gas.

**14:33**
They paid you to do it.

**14:34**
They had a ... Okay. Yeah. Programmed it. They were trying to get away from electricity. The Lord of the Man. If you put in a steam absorption, it took a lot of electricity. demand away, especially for a place as big as

**14:51**
Parris Island. Right. That makes sense. So they paid Parris Island to go ahead and put that system in? They paid

**15:00**
the contractor. Okay. Not us.

**15:06**
Like a rebate of sorts. Yeah. Taxes break. Yeah, because Parris Island would have been a big community that took demand off.

**15:17**
Parris Island was that, an island. It was self-sufficient. We had a power plant to generate electricity and steam for heating and distribution systems. We had everything in the electrical system was 40-160 volt. Yeah.

**15:38**
So it was like a city.

**15:42**
Yeah, a lot to think about in terms of the different systems and there was always probably something going on there as far as a project or

**15:51**
Oh yeah. We had a, I can't remember how much money but we had a pretty good budget.

**16:03**
The one of the things we did in the early years was asking electric and gas who go up on the cost of natural gas. We had converted our they were burning coal

**16:20**
when I went there. Okay.

**16:23**
The boilers were. But when we went to fuel oil and when natural gas became available, we had dual-fired furnace boilers.

**16:35**
Well, South Carolina Electric and Gas was going up on the cost of gas and we struck a bargain with them on the basis of the value of the energy. We could use fuel oil, oil gas. And if they went up above the thermal price of natural gas, we turned it to fuel oil.

**16:59**
So that incentive still does it today as far as I know.

**17:06**
Okay. Interesting. Was there any, so kind of a few more things about Parris Island. Was there anything about like, was there any good lessons learned

**17:19**
Oh my goodness.

**17:20**
while you were at Parris Island over the years?

**17:24**
Well, when I went there, the barracks were just ventilated. The way you got cool was open. You opened the window. So we did the initial air conditioning for all the barracks. And like I say, the interesting parts of it included the absorption systems, but we extended the steam distribution system all the way to the rifle range, which is a good ways from the main station to make it available for heat.

**17:54**
And so I hadn't thought of it, but yeah, all this, the utilities were changed. Obviously we had a water system that had 25 wells off base.

**18:11**
In the Burton area it was called. And when Beaufort Jasper Water and Sewer Thought, they were just water then, came into existence. We, and we had a water softening plant too, but we changed to their water.

**18:30**
So up until that time, we did the utility distribution system for water.

**18:37**
I had an occasion when Parris Island called me a couple of years ago. They had run into a line, they couldn't figure out where it went. I happened to know.

**18:46**
We had built, before Beaufort Jasper came into existence, we had built a soft water treated line and ran it to the laundry. And that's what it was for. And I happened to know that. Yeah.

**19:03**
And that was a line that was on the base. Yeah. It was off base.

**19:07**
I couldn't figure out what it was for.

**19:09**
Well, if you have a question about a pipe in Beaufort County called, called Robert DeLoach, he might know.

**19:15**
Not much on the county.

**19:17**
But so, so that's a bit about Parris Island. And then obviously going back to BES, Beaufort Engineering Services, now just known as BES. Yeah. And then eventually you got partnership, I guess, how long before you got partnership?

**19:32**
I was a partner one day after I got there.

**19:35**
Oh, one day. Oh. Hey, that's pretty efficient.

**19:37**
The other guys who owned the business, owed me money and instead of money, I took stock.

**19:44**
Okay. Well, that was one way to do it.

**19:47**
Yeah. That's the way I became a partner.

**19:50**
What year, what year was that that you started? Do you know?

**19:53**
1988.

**19:54**
Okay. 88. All right. The reason I asked is I interviewed, I graduated college in 1998 and I interviewed BES.

**20:05**
Yeah, you did, didn't you?

**20:06**
You guys missed out on a good opportunity. We sure did.

**20:11**
So, because I did structural, but I interviewed for that. Of course I still do structural, but I guess they did a variety of work, right?

**20:21**
We did it.

**20:23**
Or still do, they still do.

**20:23**
Yeah. We worked with Parris Island. We had what's called an open-end contract. Okay. With Parris Island in 89.

**20:33**
Okay.

**20:35**
And so they dreamed up a project and handed it to us and we gave them a price to do the design for construction.

**20:43**
And that lasted for four years. Okay. But we had several of them.

**20:51**
Like an IDIQ, they call it nowadays.

**20:55**
Yeah, that's what they call it now.

**20:57**
So that kept you pretty busy for a while, those Parris Island- At BES, yeah. Yeah. And so somebody was telling me recently, a little birdie, if you will, said that there was a saying around that you were never going to retire from BES, that you would have to have the coroner take you back.

**21:20**
There was a saying, that I had to go home in a box.

**21:23**
Is that a true statement?

**21:24**
That is a true statement, which I violated. You violated?

**21:28**
Was there, what happened, I guess?

**21:31**
Actually, I just got to the point, where the company needed the downsize. Okay. After 2007, It was several years before things got back to normal again. And, so I just needed to downsizing. It was easier for me to leave than to fire somebody else.

**21:55**
Right. Right. Okay. So it was, it was sort of for that reason.

**21:58**
I though. Then,

**22:03**
When the office got burned down, we bought a warehouse at the train station that belonged to Coslins. And we're refurbishing it for our office building. And the office building they have now is at that location. Yeah. But some kids came along one night and set it on fire. We were one week away from putting in the sprinklers.

**22:32**
Oh, wow. Okay. And that's the old building? Mm-hmm. Okay.

**22:37**
It's all hard-fired. Beautiful old building.

**22:39**
Oh, wow. Okay.

**22:41**
But it burned to the ground.

**22:43**
Okay. That's unfortunate.

**22:45**
Built another building. Yeah.

**22:48**
So when you... Yeah, that's definitely unfortunate about that. But I guess you guys got it restored and got it fixed. Yes. Right? And I've been to that building. It's a beautiful building.

**23:02**
Yes, it is.

**23:03**
So at BES, were there any interesting projects that you worked on?

**23:11**
Oh, yeah. Several.

**23:16**
One was the Episcopal Church. Okay. I did that one in 1969.

**23:25**
Okay. This was moonlighting.

**23:27**
Yeah. Yeah.

**23:28**
I was working with BES. But the head warden talked me in. He was designing an air conditioning system for the Episcopal Church. Okay. They didn't have one.

**23:40**
They didn't have one. No.

**23:42**
Okay.

**23:42**
Now, which one was that?

**23:44**
Running Beaufort.

**23:45**
Okay. Okay. Yeah. Downtown. Yeah. And so...

**23:50**
St. Helens.

**23:51**
St. Helens Episcopal. They never had an air conditioning before?

**23:55**
It was in 1969.

**23:56**
Oh, wow. Okay. It must have been hot Sundays in those churches, right? Yes. On some of those mornings, I imagine. Some of the places.

**24:05**
I was looking. I crawled around the whole place to find a place to put ductwork and equipment. Yeah. In the original church. And found some graves underneath where they'd added wings and didn't bother to move the graves.

**24:21**
Oh, wow. Okay.

**24:23**
They knew they were under there.

**24:27**
But one of the things that was interesting about that job is when I got up into the second floor in the attic. And it was... The beams that supported... You'd be interested in this. The beam that supported the choir was half of a log. Well, it was a quarter. Okay. Just cutting. The bark was still on it.

**24:53**
Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah.

**24:54**
Cypress.

**24:55**
Yeah. I'd like to see that sometime. That sounds interesting. Yeah. I've been in some of those old churches like that. Older buildings where it's hand-hewn lumber.

**25:05**
Oh, that's... Wait, this was interesting. Yeah.

**25:08**
So... Yeah. Yeah. How about people? Were there any interesting people that you worked with at BES?

**25:17**
Oh, yeah.

**25:18**
Or anybody of note?

**25:21**
My partner, Billy O'Neill, before he went on his own. And Keith O'Neill, his brother, were my partners. Yeah. And then Walt Bolton came on board. I can't remember what year that was.

**25:41**
Mid-90s, probably? About 91, I think. 91? 91, okay. Somewhere along there.

**25:47**
Yeah. And...

**25:50**
But Keith is at Naval Hospital. He just retired. He was a public works officer, civilian side.

**25:59**
And he just retired December of this year. Well, you know Billy O'Neill.

**26:08**
Yeah, I met with him, you know, when I interviewed. I don't really know him that well other than that one... That was the only time I really met him was in 1998.

**26:16**
Oh, really? Yeah.

**26:18**
I really haven't...

**26:19**
Well, he went to work with the technical college.

**26:24**
Okay. Like teaching?

**26:26**
Yeah, he was ahead of the continuing education side of it.

**26:32**
Okay. Yeah. Well, that's good that he was able to help out in that way. How about... So, one more question about BES. I mean, as far as, was there any lessons that you want to share about working there? Well, we...

**26:48**
We have a problem remembering things.

**26:53**
Sure, sure. But... That makes sense.

**26:57**
I'm trying to remember the name of the company. I can't. But anyhow, we used an energy-saving machine where we take the energy from the condenser and preheat and use it to preheat the incoming air. Okay. Can't remember the name of the equipment. That's crazy. But anyhow... But anyhow... That was the first one of those in our area.

**27:28**
Okay. And that was for heating purposes. Yeah.

**27:31**
Well, that was to use the heat off the condenser in the air conditioner. Okay. Instead of blowing it away to the air, we used it to... Through a coil to preheat the outside air we had to have for occupancy. Okay.

**27:47**
Yeah. So, that's... That was an energy... Energy-saving device. Energy-saving device. Efficiency. And that was a long, long time ago. That was before energy was cool. That's right. Environmentalism and energy savings was... That was...

**27:59**
I had a heat transfer people on to... Well, I can't remember the name of it. Had an article in the newspaper. I mean, in a magazine about that particular project. Okay. I had it hanging on the wall. And when I left, it left. And I don't know where it is. Probably threw it away.

**28:20**
Yeah. Well, that's okay. Well, maybe if you think about it, you can let me know. But... Okay. Well, that's... That's BES. And back to the question, though, about, you know, you said you'd never retire. I mean, I guess the question I want to ask, because this is really what this show is all about, which is what really drives you in what you do in terms of engineering and construction. But why would you say that you never want to retire? Is there a drive there or a reason? Well...

**28:52**
The main reason for saying... The main reason for saying that was to keep your mind busy. Okay. Keep you going. And not sitting around doing nothing. Right. And I enjoyed it. I really did. Yeah. I enjoyed constructing or having something built to be designed that was beneficial to somebody. A lot of it still is. Yeah.

**29:18**
I mean, people on Parris Island are still benefiting from it. Right. The Episcopal Church, hopefully. We did.

**29:24**
We've done more churches than that, but since that was, some of them have changed denomination. I can't remember. A church on St. Helena, one in Bluffton.

**29:44**
There's one more. I can't think of where it is. But anyhow, the satisfaction of doing a good system.

**29:55**
It gives you a certain... It gives you a... Joy. Yes. You know, would you say? Yes. So... And so that's why you... You really just wanted to keep working. Yeah. That was one of the reasons why. Yeah. And to stay sharp.

**30:07**
Yeah, stay. I found out that about six weeks after you retire, something new is coming along you know nothing about.

**30:16**
What is that? Any... Just...

**30:19**
With me, we were the first... We were either the first or the second company in South Carolina to do AutoCAD.

**30:29**
Okay. Yeah. Wow. VES was. Yeah. Okay.

**30:34**
I think the Mar-Bell telephone people did one in Columbia, but other than that, we were next.

**30:45**
Wow. That's pretty cutting edge right there. Yeah.

**30:47**
That's right. The beginning of it. That's right. Yeah.

**30:50**
Yeah. That was definitely one of the things I wanted to touch on was just the changes in technology. I mean, like, I guess you've talked about that some, but what are the most significant ones? AutoCAD is probably a big one.

**31:04**
Well, I'll give you an example of what... Saving time and the accuracy of the work. We had a printer. We did two buildings for the South Carolina medical people in Columbia. I can't forget the name of that hospital. There were 200,000 square feet each.

**31:27**
The VA, maybe, or...?

**31:28**
No, it was the Columbia Memorial Hospital. I think that was the name.

**31:45**
It's one of those. Anyhow. We did two of those, and to have the people review our plans, we had a printer in Butte that took 24 hours to print the documents.

**31:45**
Okay.

**31:48**
And we rolled them up, hard copy, because there wasn't any electronic communication then. Right. And put them on the bus, and they'd pick them up at the Greyhound bus station.

**32:02**
Oh, wow.

**32:02**
In about two weeks to three weeks, we'd get the answers back. We'd make the changes, send it back again for final reviews, same way. We finally figured out it just wasn't going to work. It takes too much time.

**32:28**
So we bought an electrostatic one from Hewlett Packard. We did that all in a day. Printed that thing in a matter of minutes. Wow.

**32:29**
And had it up there in that day.

**32:39**
So from two weeks to one day.

**32:31**
Very efficient. Right.

**32:40**
And that was just the printer. That was the printer. One very... And we didn't...

**32:45**
When we first started, David Adams, who worked with us, would spend the night there watching the printer. So if it ran out of ink, he could change it. Otherwise, you'd have a blank sheet in the morning.

**33:01**
Then you'd have to start all over again. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Those are tough.

**33:06**
So it's a little less crude nowadays.

**33:08**
Right. Right. And I mean, you went... You went all the way from drawing by hand to AutoCAD. Now, are you familiar with Revit?

**33:14**
Oh, yeah. Yeah.

**33:15**
So, I mean, because they were using that in 20... I mean, Revit came out...

**33:20**
When Revit came along, we used it primarily... We used it to avoid obstruction. Yeah. During construction. Right. We didn't put a steam pipe in the middle of a refrigerator or something. Right.

**33:35**
Yeah. I mean, that's one of the benefits. BIM, Building Information Modeling.

**33:39**
That's what it is. That's what it is, yeah.

**33:40**
You know, it helps you see... It helps you see that type of obstructions and so many other benefits.

**33:46**
Well, structural was one of the problems that we... In mechanical systems, we had to stay out of your way. Right.

**33:54**
Yeah. You guys like to put holes in my beams. That's right. And so forth. So, we have to...

**34:01**
But the Revit did a lot to help with that problem.

**34:05**
For sure. For sure. I mean, obviously, you have to... The thing that I respect so much about people that were doing the hand drawings, and I did some of those myself back when I started out, but is the ability to visualize. You know, I think I'm concerned about the use of BIM and Revit and the inability to visualize. Do you think that there's a lack of that?

**34:29**
No doubt about it. You're absolutely correct. We had to train ourselves to think in 3D. Yeah. We had to visualize. The total construction project as we designed to make sure we didn't have those interferences. Right.

**34:48**
So, you have that, but then also, if you could take that ability and combine it with the current technology, that is where the power comes in.

**34:59**
I wonder how they do that.

**35:01**
Well, I think you just have to... I don't know. That's a good question. That's the challenge is... Yeah. Helping people not rely too much on the power of BIM to where... It's not a crutch, but it's rather a... Yeah. It enhances, no pun intended, but it enhances your abilities, right? Yeah.

**35:19**
Another thing about that is that you, before you even put pencil to paper, whether it be electronically or by hand, you have to visualize what the total construction is like. Right.

**35:37**
Yeah. I think that's a key part of it. It's a very part. Thinking ahead, not being reactive, but more proactive in how things are coming together, whether it's the mechanical system.

**35:50**
Well, you have to know mechanical, electrical, and structural, be able to visualize it all.

**35:57**
Yeah, exactly.

**35:58**
Whatever discipline you're in.

**36:01**
And you did cross over some disciplines. I mean, you did some surveying. You did, like, early on. Oh, yeah. Did you do any other crossover into other disciplines?

**36:10**
Well, like I said, we did Paris Island. The public works department, design division, designed anything they built for a while until they went to contracts, got more than we could handle. Yeah. We still tried to do as much as 10% or 15% to keep sharp about design. We hired people like you to come in and do something. We had to have the ability to review it.

**36:44**
Right. Sometimes you have to bring in experts. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So we're going to kind of wrap this up pretty much. Just a couple more questions for you. Sure. But I guess really one question is, you know, more on the personal side. Like, what are you doing nowadays? Like, what are you keeping up with?

**37:08**
Basically, I don't do much. Yeah.

**37:14**
But cooking. My wife and I go out to lunch every now and then.

**37:19**
And they still call him from the VES. Okay. Do you remember that contract we had in Jacksonville or Bedville or something like that, that hospital? He said, yeah, yeah, I remember him. Then they'll talk about a problem that's current at this time. And he'll sit right there and we'll remember it. And once in a while, he'll want to go look in his files that he kept some of them, and check them, and stuff like that. Yeah.

**37:46**
Well, I kept way the government spends money. It can be five years from the time you finish the design before they build it. And you've got to be able to answer the questions in five years.

**38:00**
Okay. Right. Exactly. Yeah.

**38:03**
So I kept the files up. I remember I kept the files up until they finished. Yeah.

**38:09**
And how do you – so that was a question I asked a few people. What would you want to hear from Robert DeLoe? And that was one of the questions was, how do you – what's the secret to keeping up your memory?

**38:23**
I'll tell you, I still get asked questions on occasion about systems we did. Yeah. And it keeps your mind sharp.

**38:33**
Okay.

**38:35**
And I still enjoy what knowledge I have. But like I said to you earlier, it's another world now.

**38:48**
Right.

**38:49**
I had hand-drawing copies. My grandson-in-law is working for the Navy now, and he went to Parris Island and saw a lot of drawings with my names on them. Okay. They're fixing to do away with all the hard copy and do electronic. Yeah.

**39:11**
Do you feel like that's a good decision?

**39:13**
No.

**39:16**
Because one bad electronic mission – Mm-hmm. Missed out, and you've lost a lot of information. Well, if you've still got that sheet with those lines on it, you can recover it.

**39:28**
Right, right. Okay. Well, maybe we should rethink that, right? Do both. Do both.

**39:34**
Yeah, one's real fast, and the other takes forever. Yeah.

**39:39**
So those are good advice as far as keeping the memory sharp.

**39:46**
Now, as far as what are you doing now? Do you read a lot of newspaper? Do you do anything for entertainment?

**39:52**
I do a little reading, and not much in the politics anymore. Yeah. Just to aggravate. But –

**40:00**
Stay out of the newspaper. Is that your tip for everybody? Yeah. Well, I guess part of the question was keeping up with news, and I mean, like my dad – News, basically. He read the newspaper cover to cover every day. Do you do that?

**40:16**
I quit.

**40:17**
You quit doing that? Okay. I quit doing that.

**40:18**
Yeah. Yeah. If you’d like. We do?

**40:26**
Well, we check all the news. I better not be talking there.

**40:30**
Oh, no. You're fine. Yeah. Go ahead.

**40:32**
If you like. We stay up with the politics and the news. Okay.

**40:35**
and the progress that's been made, and fast-tract just in two weeks, you know. Yeah.

**40:43**
That's interesting. And he's joined a book club.

**40:46**
Okay.

**40:47**
Some of the print was so small, and some of the reading was getting tedious. So, we set up the audio system.

**40:56**
Audio books. Yeah. All right. Any interesting audiobooks you're listening to right now?

**41:03**
I just finished one. Damn Lucky. Okay. It was about a B-17 pilot during the Second World War. Okay. Very good book. I enjoyed it. Interesting. All right. But a lot of memories.

**41:17**
Bring back some memories for you? Bring them back. Yeah.

**41:20**
That action was happening while I was in the Navy.

**41:24**
Yeah. So, we may have to check that book out, Damn Lucky, B-17. Yeah.

**41:31**
Oh, and also, did you know about his breakfast club?

**41:35**
Oh, yeah. Thanks for reminding me about that. You said you were in a movie. Can you tell us about that? Yeah.

**41:41**
Well, every Wednesday morning, a group of us get together for breakfast at Blackstone's

**41:47**
cafe.

**41:50**
And one of our friends who came up talking to... One of the members was impressed with the stories of the members. Okay. Because we go from... The oldest guy is 100. Okay. And I'm next at 98. Okay. And it gets down to about 70. Okay.

**42:12**
And they get some good stories.

**42:13**
There's a group of about 15 of us. Anyhow, he arranged for a group that does movies to do a movie of us as a group. And they got some good stories. And they interviewed each one.

**42:28**
Okay.

**42:28**
And made a sort of a documentary out of it. It's accepted by the Beaufort Film Festival and will be shown there. Wow. And South Carolina Electric... I mean, South Carolina... ETV. ETV is interested in it. They're going to show it at some point. They haven't said when yet.

**42:48**
Okay. Well, maybe they can pick this up too. Yeah. Why not? Was there any... I don't know. Any interesting stories that maybe you wanted to share from that or I don't want to double dip on that, but...

**43:03**
Well, yeah. There are... Of course, there's some of the guys in there who were in Vietnam. We had every battle since the Second World War represented by somebody in there. And their stories are something else. One particular guy, I won't use names. Sure. One particular guy flew helicopters in Vietnam.

**43:34**
And some of his, he did three tours there. And some of his stories were very dangerous, to say the least. Yeah.

**43:51**
Yeah. My first boss, he was a helicopter fighter pilot. Was he? Yeah. So he had a few of those too. Yeah.

**43:59**
Everybody that was over there had a bat. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But anyhow, he talked to him. And locally, well, pretty soon they're all known because they're going to have a movie with their names in it.

**44:20**
Yeah. That's true. So what was the name of that movie?

**44:24**
It's called Breakfast in Beaufort.

**44:26**
Breakfast in Beaufort. That's a cool name. Yeah. I like that. So check it out, Breakfast in Beaufort. You can listen to Robert DeLoach and his friends. Yeah. And Blackstones, I mean, that's like a Beaufort classic right there.

**44:38**
That's a classic. And at the beginning of the film, they have a part of the video that starts out with the members walking down the sidewalk and coming into Blackstones and just seeing them come in and what have I won, you know. And as the story ends, they exit.

**44:55**
So if I want to catch you guys, I go on Wednesday mornings around 7:30?

**45:00**
Well Wednesday mornings is when I believe I...

**45:05**
And they do the Pledge of Allegiance every Wednesday morning. Yeah.

**45:09**
Blackstones.

**45:10**
Okay. Well, so was there anything you wanted to share? I mean, this is an opportunity for you to document and just share with people. It could be people in the AEC industry or anybody in general, but it's an opportunity for you just to document who you are and maybe what you would like to share with anybody.

**45:30**
Well, yeah. I guess even if as I said in the movie, if you'll pay attention to your faith and hard work and your family, those are the three most important issues you face in life.

**45:57**
And if you're a hard worker, you will enjoy the work.

**46:07**
But it isn't always easy.

**46:13**
That's about it.

**46:16**
I've lived in Beaufort growing up. When I graduated from Clemson, there were 5,000 and some odd people in the city of Beaufort.

**46:27**
Now, there are 14,000 plus.

**46:32**
That's just in the city, right? In the city. And then the perimeter area is-

**46:36**
Well, the county is over 200,000. And there were 24,000 when I graduated.

**46:42**
Wow. Okay. So, that's about it. So, some things have changed around here. Yes. Right?

**46:48**
Good bit.

**46:49**
Awesome. Well, hey, Robert, it was great to have you on today. A pleasure and an honor, really, to have you in.

**46:56**
Well, thank you. I enjoyed it. Not too interesting a life, but it's a life.

**47:03**
Was there anything, Cookie, that you would like to share today?

**47:07**
You don't want to get me started.

**47:09**
So, I'm just going to come over here closer where I got the microphone. Was there anything you wanted to share?

**47:13**
Well, no, except that our family's an old, old family. And what is so interesting is they came from France. And they were pharmacists back in the 1100s. Okay. And now we have carried on the tradition. But then they left France and went to the Isle of Martinique.

**47:33**
Okay.

**47:34**
I guess it was around the Revolution. I don't know. But they stayed down in Martinique about 100 years doing pharmacy. And then they came to Charleston. Okay. And they were practically the oldest pharmacy in Charleston. But they came and there was one other one at that time. But very short after that, just very short time, they just continued on. But the other one was not existing at that time. So, they've been there since the 1700s. Oh, wow. So, when they closed, a lot of the Smithsonian came down and had a field day.

**48:11**
Oh, wow.

**48:11**
And so, a lot of things went there. And I have some things. And one thing was a solid piece of wood, a mortar and pestle was made from that. It stood about this high. Okay. And so, they decided to give that to the School of Pharmacy in Charleston. Okay. But one day I got this call from the dean. He said, it was Dean Golod then. He said, Cookie, I have to tell you something. The mortar and pestle that we had, we had to give to the Smithsonian because we couldn't afford the insurance.

**48:42**
Oh, okay. Wow.

**48:43**
But that's just a little bit.

**48:45**
We got married, by the way, when I was 90. So, we've been married going on nine years. Okay.

**48:51**
And then come to find out that the history in our family, we don't have as much documentation as his family. But come to find out, I was the Bourbons, but we're lacking a lot of documentation. But anyway, his has it. And it goes back to the same Bourbon family. In Loches, France. That's why. Okay. De Loches. Some of the counts, I went back and did just to kind of review over a thousand years. And three of the counts of Anjou, which is the territory, that would be like the Low Country, that Loches is located there. And three of them married into our family.

**49:35**
The Bourbon and the Adhemar Bourbon family. It's the same.

**49:41**
So, your family, you were saying earlier, is what again?

**49:45**
The Aymars. Aymars. A-M-E-R and Adhemar is the same family. Yeah. All three.

**49:53**
Very good. All right. Well, thanks, Cookie, for sharing that. And very, very good to have you both on and share just your life and your history. I'm sure everybody's going to just enjoy hearing about it. I hope so.

**50:10**
So, at 98, I don't expect my driver's license is good until 102. Okay.

**50:21**
Well, let's hope you get a renewal at that time. Let's hope so. All right. Take care.

**50:27**
Hey, everybody. Thanks for listening to today's episode of Enhance. And please leave a like, a subscribe, or a follow, and we'll see you next time.

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