Meet and Greet: Ricky Willard
Shannon Hill, Ph.D

Here's the thing about The Baddour Center: it's more than a place to work. I believe you can talk to any staff member and find that to be true. That is the reason we write this column, and every edition brings you a new story about a new person. There is a sense of connection that shows up in each of the interviews, no matter what job the person holds. We've interviewed a wide variety of staff members for this column, from a division director to the grounds crew manager. Now we're adding a maintenance man to the mix. Here's his story.

What brought you to Baddour?
Ricky has worked in maintenance for over 30 years. His longest run was with Dover Elevators in Horn Lake, where he worked for 27 years. As happens in manufacturing, the company closed its Horn Lake factory. Ricky did some contract work with their other factories in the area, but that required him to be away from his family too much. So, he found a job with one of the casinos doing general maintenance work. Unfortunately, that casino was bought out, and since Ricky was one of the last people hired he was concerned that he'd be one of the first to be let go. He started looking for something else. His daughter saw an ad for a maintenance worker at The Baddour Center in the newspaper. He put in an application and started part-time in October 2002, becoming a full-time employee in December 2002.

What did you think about Baddour when you came to work here?
Ricky has lived in this area his entire life, yet he knew nothing about The Baddour Center, except that it was here. He had come on campus and played softball on our fields, but he knew nothing about who we were. He admits to being a little bit worried about what it was going to be like. It didn't take long for him to find that his worries were unfounded, though. Like all of our staff, he's got his buddies now.

Tell us about your family.
Ricky has been married to Shirley since 1972. They have three daughters, Jenny and Jonie (who are twins), and Car-rie; and six grandchildren: Kaylee, Valerie, Jacob, Avery, Carter, and Noah. They all live in this general vicinity, so they are a close family. The grandchildren range in age from 13 to one, but four of them are under five years old.

What do you do for fun?
When I asked Ricky this question, I wrote the word "conscientious" in the margin. He loves to garden, and he maintains a small vegetable garden. He lives on two acres out in the country. He said no one could make him live in a city as big as Senatobia. "The country -- that's the only place to live!" He used to go fishing, try out new restaurants, and play a lot of softball. Now, though, his work schedule requires him to be on call every other weekend, so when he is not on call he must dedicate his time to maintaining that two-acre yard. When he is on call, he won't even think about leaving town, and he won't do anything loud or distracting that might cause him to miss a call. He says he can't risk that -- what if a pipe burst and a group home flooded because he didn't hear the phone? If he's being paid to be on standby, you can rest assured he will be on standby.

What do you do for fun?
"I enjoy most of it," he replied. The carpentry is great. Ricky is well-known for his carpentry skills at The Baddour Center. He loves to build, and he does a beautiful job. The picture above shows him standing in front of some bookshelves he built for the E&R library. When someone says they like "most" of what they do, we're all naturally curious about what they don't like; so I asked him. "I do the plumbing, but that's not so great." He told me some stories about why, but I'll leave it to your imagination. I'll just say that after hearing them, I agree. It wouldn't be so great.

Although his tasks are sometimes unpleasant, time with the residents never is. Ricky is a pleas-ant guy whenever you meet him; he smiles a lot. But he became even more animated when talking about those relationships he's formed. He summed it up best with a story about bumping in to a Baddour Center group in Wal-Mart one weekend. All over the store, people were calling his name and waving to him, stopping him to talk. The friend who was with him asked if that bothered him. "Bother me? No, way. That's my family down there!"