ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 13, 1997 TAG: 9704140017
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-22 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: WILLIS
SOURCE: BOB MORGAN/THE ROANOKE TIMES
How far can you go on a bicycle?
In 1976, John Gormley left his job as a guitar maker on Cape Cod, Mass., and started riding his bicycle in the direction of San Francisco to take part in a U.S. Bicentennial celebration there.
On Virginia's Blue Ridge Parkway in a heavy rain, Gormley consulted his map. There was a place called Floyd nearby. He sought refuge for the night with a couple of locals.
In the morning, his benefactors, who were in the real estate business, told him about some houses they had just bought. The houses needed fixing up. Gormley knew something about woodworking. They suggested he stick around and do the job.
It kept on raining, and Gormley kept on delaying his trip. He went to see some of the houses. He started to get interested. The rain continued. He saw more houses. Then he made a decision.
"That was 20 years ago," he says. "I hung up my bike. The bike is still hanging here."
Today, Gormley is operating a successful woodworking business in Virginia. His clients include millionaires, architects and contractors. Most of them live elsewhere, in places like Charlottesville and Northern Virginia. But Gormley likes it in Willis.
"I'm a damned Yankee who came and stayed," he says.
Gormley worked as a one-man business in various places in Floyd for 10 years. In 1987, a sprawling building in the village of Willis came on the market. "In fear and trembling, I took out a $40,000 loan and bought the property," he says.
It was the former Hodges general store, a barber shop and beauty parlor, and the woodworking business of Aubrey T. Agnew, who specialized in grandfather clocks, corner cupboards and gun cabinets. At 72, Agnew wanted to sell the property and retire.
The building also housed the former Maberry Funeral Home on the second floor. What is believed to be the first elevator in Floyd County was installed in 1957 to carry the coffins up and down. The ancient elevator is still running and Gormley uses it to escort courageous visitors to his second-floor office.
After he bought the property, Gormley faced the choice of hiring additional people. He finally did so, and started Willis Wood Works Inc. "But this was difficult," he says. "I had always been a one-man business, not used to having other people around."
Last year he went so far as to take in a partner - Skip Morgan, real name Milton Morgan III - who was born in Milwaukee, lived in California, came to visit his mother in Floyd 19 years ago, and stayed put. He has been with Gormley for nine years. Now Morgan and his wife, Teressa, are part of Gormley's five-person team.
The Morgans, their large smiles, and their resident dog are frequently the first things one sees upon entering the sprawling workshop. There almost everything is in motion - people carrying pieces of wood, machines of all types including saws, drills, sanders, shapers - located among stockpiles of lumber, plywood and two large drafting tables.
"I could hire 20 more people and double the size of the workshops tomorrow," he says. "I have to turn away most of my orders. With more work, the overheads and the nuisances multiply and the profits never seem to get any bigger."
At one time he had a staff of nine, but for now he has decided to stay with five. He estimates the size of the business at between $350,000 and $400,000 a year.
They have recently installed custom-made shelves, cabinets and paneling in a house in Charlottesville owned by a pharmaceutical and surgical-instruments pioneer. They include:
A library done in cherry, including shelves, raised-panel cabinets and framed glass doors.
An entertainment area including recessed TV and sound-system cabinets.
Portions of the living room, entry hall, a bar and four baths.
The team took three months to prepare the components in Willis. They then were carried to Charlottesville in Gormley's 30-foot truck and installed in the house in three days. The job cost around $75,000, he says.
That is typical of the way Willis Wood Works operates. Normally, plans for jobs are submitted in the form of architectural drawings. But Gormley isn't satisfied with this. He and Morgan redraw all plans on one of the drafting tables in the workshop.
Gormley may have shifted to a team operation at the shop, but he is still a one-man operation at home - one man and six dogs, that is. In 1980 he bought 54 acres and an abandoned hunting lodge on a winding road three miles from the shop.
He has expanded the one-room lodge into a three-story, three-room house with a plant-filled solarium on the ground floor and a combined living room and kitchen on the second floor. A circular staircase leads to a bedroom loft on the third floor.
Deer, an occasional brown bear and a lone bobcat are among the animals he sees outside the house. The bobcat is "somewhat tame" and gets along with his cat, who in turn gets along with the six dogs, Gormley says.
Inside the house are a kayak and paddle (a one-man sport), several guitars (also a one-man sport), and, of course, the original bicycle. Outside the house is Gormley's four-wheel drive van with six-speaker sound. He uses it for commutes to see his customers.
Also outside the house is something new - a 22-foot sailboat with keel that Gormley says can sleep six. The boat will spend some time on Smith Mountain Lake, but it is destined for the Outer Banks.
One wonders if Gormley will sail the boat solo, or if he will start putting together another team.
LENGTH: Long : 115 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON/THE ROANOKE TIMES. 1. John Gormley leavesby CNBWillis Wood Works on a rainy day (ran on NRV-1). 2. A kitchen made
from red oak with a white lacquer finish was built for Andrea and
Jim Garland's home in Floyd County. 3. John Gormley stands in one of
the kitchens built by his company, Willis Wood Works. 4. JOHN
GORMLEY. A library (above), including shelves, raised panel doors
and walls done in cherry, is part of the work done by Willis Wood
Works. 5. GENE DALTON. Teressa Morgan (left) works on a large
cabinet in the Willis shop where her dog comes to work everyday. 6.
John Gormley still has the bike he rode into Willis 20 years ago.
color.