Paddles, oars and rafting pictures decorate the walls of his office. Ah, an obvious outdoorsman.
Big chunky rocks cover the tabletops. Gee. A geologist maybe?
Brick walls, vintage plank floors and original 1920s-era woodwork suggest a penchant for the past.
John Bullock's work space, a building he renovated in the heart of the Elk City historic district, says a lot about him, who he is, where he was and what he is doing.
A North Carolina native, once a self-proclaimed "beach bum," a passionate kayaker and substitute raft guide in younger days, he finally pleased his mother with a career as a mining engineer and industrial geologist. Now he enjoys a new role as the older half of a Pied-Piperish father-son developer team intent on rejuvenating Charleston's West Side.
Among many other projects, they restored the old Staats Hospital building and the building that houses their company, Gaddy Engineering, at 303 Washington St. W. They brought in a record shop and barber shop. Apartments for young professionals are on the way.
Although he bows to the energy and vision of his son, Tighe, this 62-year-old "redeveloper" has engineered a grand plan for turning old Elk City into what he calls "a vibrant community of young people."
nnn
"I was born in Wilmington, North Carolina. I'm related to farm families on both sides. As a boy, every summer, I would get farmed out to one of my uncles to crop tobacco. That was the heritage.
"My family came to North Carolina in the late 1600s, the first wave of immigration into eastern North Carolina.
"In 1974, I'm in business school at North Carolina State taking accounting, and I don't think I can make it through four years. I heard somebody on the radio saying coal is the future of our country.
"N.C. State had a program in sedimentology where you went down in the swamps of North Carolina and drove pipes into the ground and pulled the pipes out. We would pull mucky stuff out. Professors in geology said the coal seams in West Virginia originated as these peat bogs.
"This one professor was very influential in my decision to become a coal geologist. He gave me the names of some companies in West Virginia. One was Gaddy Engineering.
"I graduated from college with a geology degree in 1976. I went to see Mr. Gaddy in Huntington in 1977 and asked for a job.
"He didn't hire me, but he directed me to a job as a helper on a drill rig. A rig helper coring during the coal boom in West Virginia with a college degree was like wearing a sign on your back that says, 'Kick me all day.' You got these old guys who had been drilling forever and here comes smarty-pants college boy.
"During the summers in college, I would go to Wrightsville Beach and build beach houses.
"I worked up here a year then went to Wrightsville Beach for a year. I started a business, Island Entrepreneur. Basically, it was yard work and a handyman thing. I would buy Christmas trees and have some girls help me make wreaths to sell. I was 24. I was being a beach bum.
"My mother is a fine Southern woman and I'm her only son and oldest child, and she's disappointed. Every time I saw her, she pushed me to drop the beach life and get back on a professional track.
"I got a job with Consolidation Coal in 1978 in Bluefield. I worked a year with them and got a better full-time job with Westmoreland Coal, a Fortune 500 company. They sent me all over the country on geological assignments. That's what all these rocks are about. Every rock here has a different story for me to tell.
"I was an industrial geologist. We were looking for mines. Mother was getting happier. I was the lowest upper-level person, still just a kid, but I did get to fly around and do stuff with the presidents. I was getting good background.
"This coal company I worked for had some land in the New River George. I evaluated that land for them. And a good friend and I started kayaking together every weekend and some days during the week.
"Roger Armentrout, my kayaking friend, and I bought this old house in Thurmond for $9,000 and turned it into Fatty Lipscomb's Guest House for rafters and kayakers. You paid $6 a night. You didn't get a key. You just came in and stayed. It was like an early bed and breakfast.
"The population of Thurmond was about 25. I was young and kayaking and rafting and I was interested in the ladies.
"In 1983, I met my wife, Ellen, a teacher from New York. She came to the New River on a raft trip. We married quickly. We moved into this little house on the New River and started having babies.
"I was on city council about the time I married her. In '84, I became the mayor and Ellen became the town recorder. We had our council meetings on my deck.
"I had one two-year term. She said when she got old, she would like to say she was the mayor, too. She wanted to switch jobs. I'd be the recorder and she would be the mayor. I said no. She's a Northerner, and I had thrown down the gauntlet.
"We ran against each other. The vote was 19 to 1. I voted for myself. They all voted for her. They knew she did all the work.
"Well, I did do a lot of work. When our water pump system would go out, I would call Gov. Moore just like I was a real mayor. I had 20 voters in my town, but I would call the governor's office.
"I was working full time as a geologist. On weekends, I would fill in for the rafting companies as a guide. Weasel would call and say, 'Hey, I'm short two guides. Can you come up and bring Ellen?' We guided the Gauley and the New.
"Westmoreland transferred me to Big Stone Gap, Virginia. I lived there for a year. In 1990, I went to graduate school at Virginia Tech and ended up with a master's degree in mining engineering.
"The whole time, I took accounting classes at night because I realized you had to know how money moves and how others think money moves if you want to do things.
"I was at Tech from '90 to '93. I moved to Charleston and became vice president of Pardee Resources and worked for them seven years in acquisitions and business development.
"That brought me back in contact with Mr. Gaddy. He was in his mid-80s. We became friends and did some work together. He asked me to think of buying his company. Pardee thought it was a conflict, so I decided to do it myself.
"In 2000, I bought Gaddy Engineering. It had about five employees. My partner, Ted Streit, was an oil and gas engineer. We built the company into a much bigger unit and moved it here.
"We first stayed in the Custer Theater next door while we were remodeling this place.
"About that time I met Henry Battle. I've always liked history. I should have been a history professor. I think about that all the time.
"This building was owned by the architectural firm next door, David Marshall and Paul Marshall. They were having a hard time, so David and I became partners. We started a new company, Paul Marshall Architects and Engineers, which allowed me to gain control of the building.
"I set about renovating the building with my son, Tighe. He was 14. Tighe has a better story than me. I'm about the past. His story is the future.
"I was interested in community development in places that had interesting architecture. All these great buildings here fascinated me. As soon as we moved here, I incorporated the Elk City Renewal Association, a 501C3, and got other businessmen involved to do something here.
"I study leadership. Sometimes leadership can be perceived as arrogance or ego. I'm an Eagle Scout, and that's what they teach in Boy Scouts. Leadership. I give a lot of credit to Boy Scouts for the man I am right now.
"We started inventorying these buildings, what we could do with them. We started developing a vision. As I got older, my vision faded. Tighe's vision became brighter. We became business partners.
"My father was an alcoholic and never paid any attention to my life. My mother and grandfather stepped in. I had a good raising. So I wanted to be there for my son.
"We have a very unique relationship. He's coming up, and I'm willing to let go. In a lot of father-son relationships, the father wants to be the boss and keep the son under. We have the opposite thing. I want him to step in. I want to cruise in the background but still be there.
"Probably none of this would have happened without Henry Battle. I had him rewrite everything I sent out. Henry helped us get off the ground.
"When we do buildings, we deconstruct them while keeping the historical elements. Here, we have the original window trim. If we didn't have enough, we made it. That trim over there was made by my son to look like original trim. He made that at 17.
"We did the building across the street with Romanesque architecture. We remodeled a stone building on Indiana and reworked a brick apartment complex. We just finished Kin Ship Goods. That was a garage. They put a T-shirt factory in the back.
"Now we're working with Phil Melick on the record shop. We put in the Bully Trap Barber Shop. They are two young men, Mike and Mike. They are covered with tattoos, but they're clean-cut. This is what we want, a vibrant community of young people.
"A lot of developers are interested in senior citizen housing that you can get federal tax credits for. That's not what we need here. We need some energy.
"We put a $200,000 roof on the Staats Building. The façade had been bricked in, and we figured out how it had been originally when it was a theater, men's shop and a confectionery, and we built it exactly like that.
"We've offered Tamarack as much space as they want for $1 for as long as it takes to pay back that money. If we work around the arts, it will attract young people. The second phase will be the accountants and engineers.
"I have lived a great life. But how did I get to be 62? The body is starting to break down a little, but the brain seems willing to do a lot more.
"I'm really proud of our children. Tighe tries hard to make his father proud. Our daughter is in Army intelligence. My son just graduated from law school. His sister has her own business, an artist actually supporting herself.
"And yes, my mother is really proud. She finally came around."
Reach Sandy Wells at sandyw@wvgazette.com or 304-542-5478.