2008.11.14
Burton grad makes a career of what he loves
At the age of 11, Donald Casey brought an old bicycle frame along with some spare parts he'd collected down to Hollins Garage in Delaney's Court and asked to borrow a few tools.
"Do you know you have mechanic ability?" he remembered the garage owner saying, after Casey rode the bike around the driveway-earning him his first part-time job. More than half a century later, the 63-year-old credits the first year of the Arnold R. Burton Technology Center and his work ethic for his success in life.
"Burton was a springboard to my future," Casey said. During his freshman and sophomore years at G.W. Carver High school, he went to the Roanoke County Vocational Center at Andrew Lewis High for auto mechanic classes. He said that his teacher, "Mr. Tony," had worked on turbines for the Navy before teaching about cars-Casey was able to become an apprentice student.
Upon graduation in 1963, Casey declined the offer to keep apprenticing at the school and joined the Army. He started out where he was qualified: in wheel vehicle mechanic school. As the top-ranked student, he went to school in Fort Knox for track vehicle mechanic school.
He made E8 rank in 18 months-a little over 14 months were spent in Vietnam, working on armored tanks and self-propelled howitzers, long-range cannons. Upon returning home in 1972, it took him a little under a month to start a job at Appalachian Power (now AEP.)
"The man that interviewed me asked me why my hands were so smooth, he said they didn't look like mechanic's hands," Casey laughed. And they still don't. His rank in the army as a motorsergeant was equivalent to a garage supervisor in civilian life. Casey was never the type to burn or cut his hands on a motor, anyway.
"Getting frustrated, getting angry and impatient is what gets your hands cut up, what gets you hurt," he said. Unlike the old stereotype of mechanic, he doesn't drink a lot of caffeine or alcohol, or smoke, which he says can create an unsteady hand.
Casey's ascent at AEP was just as steep as his climb in rank was in the army. He started out as a bottom "C class" mechanic, and was told that to make it to a top "A class" mechanic would take over seven years. He did it in 19 months.
"I didn't look at it at the time, I just did what I was supposed to, did my job," he said. He was even part of the Army Reserves. After he retired from AEP in 2001 almost 30 years later, he couldn't just stop working.
His son, Ronald, now a doctor, cautioned him. "My son says if I don't find something to do, I'm not going to last long." So he started his own business, "Don's Mobile Oil Change."
For over five years, the entrepreneur rode around his hometown, Lynchburg, to colleges, upper-class neighborhoods, or senior citizens' neighborhoods, and brought the oil change to them. And finally, in 2008, he's ready to retire.
He and brother, Juan Casey, have traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada, and Casey is looking to sell his business, the truck and all. But not without a few stops to Burton. He's stopped by on several occasions to speak to and encourage the auto students.
"If you don't have your hands and your brain and then your heart in this field of automechanics, and then give your heart a chance to love it like you should," he said, that following one's passion and following God are the keys to success in life.
