Otterbein University students, parents and visitors might not recognize Kenny Goble if they see him on campus, but they’ll certainly recognize his handiwork.
Goble has been part of the facilities department at Otterbein for more than three decades. His job title is “carpenter,” but carpentry is just one part – albeit a significant part – of his work for the university over the past 31 years.
Hired at Otterbein in July 1993, when it was still Otterbein College, Goble has been there ever since. Shortly after he started working at the college, Goble met Otterbein’s then-president, Brent DeVore. DeVore asked him if he saw his work at Otterbein as a career, emphasizing that the school always appreciated career-minded employees.
Fortunately for DeVore, that was exactly what Goble had in mind, in large part because his working there presented an educational opportunity for his two daughters, Jocelyn and Cassidy. Both of them would go on to graduate from Otterbein – a big deal for Goble, he says, because it was an opportunity he didn’t have.
“I didn’t get to realize higher education myself, just trade,” he says.
Goble is well known among university faculty and staff for his commitment to students and the quality of his work, says Tim Priest, executive director of facilities management and planning at Otterbein. Priest, who has worked with Goble off-and-on since 1995, says he is always looking for ways to contribute.
“If we’re able to create some time for him, he can do just about anything,” Priest says.
Goble appreciates the community atmosphere of Otterbein, as well as the fact that every day on the job there is different. If he plots out a weekly to-do list on Monday morning, he says, there’s every possibility that he’ll have thrown it away by Monday afternoon as other needs materialize.
The facilities department is full of very talented tradesmen, Goble says, and other university staff and faculty often call upon them for projects that might otherwise be expensive or time-consuming. Goble has built cabinets, remodeled kitchens, put up walls and even custom-designed a rolling rack for stringed instruments.
“Whatever somebody can dream up, they usually run it by us first to see if we can do it in-house,” he says. “We manage to get it done, which sometimes impresses me even after all these years.”
Just this past summer, Goble found out the university had gotten quotes to replace aging countertops in DeVore Hall, Priest says, and offered to replace them himself instead. The move probably saved Otterbein over $20,000, he says, with a higher level of workmanship to boot.
“That’s what Kenny does,” says Priest.
Because the facilities department is so collaborative, Goble says, he knows how to do far more than carpentry. One of his main non-carpentry duties is lock-and-key work, and he has replaced countless doors and locks across campus over his long career.
“When you want stuff done the right way, when you want someone to take charge of the situation, he’s that guy,” says Priest.
One of Goble’s earliest supervisors once told him that even a small patch job might be expected to last for 20 years, and Goble has always worked to ensure everything he builds or fixes will stand the test of time.
“If you put your name on something, you want it to be nice,” he says.
Perhaps his best-known project on campus is the massive wreath that goes up on Towers Hall when the holiday season approaches. Installation of that wreath has been Goble’s job since shortly after he started at Otterbein, and though the wreath itself has been replaced two or three times – it got significantly bigger after an ailing pine tree near Towers Hall was felled, accommodating more space for decoration – he’s gone up the ladder to hang it every year, save a handful of occasions on which he was recovering from illness or injury.
Students often cheer on the department when they see the wreath and other holiday decorations going up in mid-to-late November, Goble says. He and his colleagues recently added colorful lighting around the wreath to improve the ambiance.
“I have so many friends in the community who’ll come by and say, ‘Oh, hey, I just saw the wreath on Towers,’” he says.
Goble is heavily involved in the setup for the graduation ceremony and takes a great deal of pride in making it look good as a reward for students’ hard work. He’s always working that day to ensure the ceremony goes off without a hitch – except, of course, for the two years when he got to see his daughters receive their diplomas.
“He cares about the kids at Otterbein, so he wants to make sure they have the best experience here,” Priest says.
His family connections to Otterbein go beyond his daughters’ attendance there. Goble’s cousin was a campus police officer there; his uncle, Robert Brown, and his great-uncle, Sherman Brown, both worked as carpenters there. In fact, Sherman retired shortly after Goble was hired, and Goble took over many of his responsibilities.
“Our family always had a reputation for being hard workers,” says Goble. “That’s something I always pride myself on.”
In addition to his work at Otterbein, Goble serves the larger Westerville community as a member of Blendon Masonic Lodge #339. He’s been a Freemason for 14 years, and this year, he serves as the lodge’s worshipful master, essentially its president.
Goble says that the Freemason philosophy has charity at its core, and that’s what drove him to be part of it. Here in Westerville, Blendon 339 annually gives out $1,000 college scholarships to three students – one from each high school – and also hosts a fish fry in the spring, with 100 percent of proceeds going to Westerville Special Olympics.
Goble and his partner, Anne Rothwell, have a total of three grown children – Goble’s two daughters and Rothwell’s son – and two grandchildren.
Garth Bishop is a contributing editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
