Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 6, 1993                   TAG: 9307030116
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KATHLEEN WILSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BRICK MAKERS PUT THEMSELVES IN THEIR WORK

The clay and the sand so unique to this region imbue Old Virginia Brick with the deep, rich colors builders and developers clamor for from all over the United States.

Yes, sitting in an office, you hear all about the shale and the clay and the mud and the sand.

It's only on a walk through Old Virginia Brick's plant you discover the most important ingredient.

The perspiration.

Day and night, 63 dusty brickmakers toil in the grit and the grime in temperatures only a Gila monster could love.

For seven years Augustine Perdue has spent his days scooping up big globs of clay with his bare hands, then slapping it into wood molds for the specialty shapes that are Old Virginia Brick's hallmark.

Augustine works in the one are of the plant that is still pretty much a mud hole, yet he never stops smiling.

Like most of the Old Virginia Brick work force, he's proud of his work and likes what he does.

Generation after generation, they work for the brickyard.

Randy Collins works in the arch shop, using templates to grind bricks into shape. He's been there for 17 years.

Randy isn't sure how many years his father, Elgin, worked for Old Virginia Brick. He can only roll his eyes, whistle and say, "a long, long time."

Elgin Collins fired the great kilns. "They called him `Cannonball,' " Randy said, more than just a little proud.

Right beside Randy works Irvin Wright. He's been there for 10 years and, like Randy, followed in the footsteps of his father, Shafer Wright.

Marvin Huff has been there 25 years; Frank Underwood, 39.

Today Frank's the yard and packaging supervisor. "That means I work hard with my brain now instead of my back," he said.

It's fairly hard to imagine they can possibly be making enough money to make all that back-breaking worthwhile.

But look closer.

There's a piece of Augustine Perdue in that Cave Spring post office on Virginia 419. There are chunks of both Irvin and Shafer Wright all over the University of Virginia campus.

You'll find Marvin Huff and Frank Underwood in the Forest Park Elementary School, Hollins College and maybe the American Embassy in Australia.

Chris Moore has only worked for Old Virginia Brick for two years. But when Old Virginia Brick provides the brick specially made to match the Wren Building (built in 1639) at the College of William and Mary for its 300th anniversary building, he'll be able to show his children where he lives on there.

And in the very foundation of Wake Forest University, the spirit of Cannonball Collins and his son will live on forever. "And don't think I don't enjoy the heck out of that," Randy said with a smile.