THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 10, 1996 TAG: 9601090089
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY LINDA McNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WINDSOR LENGTH: Long : 130 lines
WHEN J.M. ``JIM'' DEGRAND was growing up in St. Louis County, Mo., he watched cows and horses grazing in fields near his home, worked trap lines with neighbors for beaver and fox and had only to walk across the road from his home to be on a farm.
``Today, it's St. Louis,'' DeGrand said recently. ``I go home and shake my head. Areas I used to trap in - why, that's all St. Louis now, all subdivisions.''
DeGrand's home turf was incorporated in the early 1960s into Sunset Hills, a small town with a population of about 3,000. Today, he says, you can't tell where the city of St. Louis ends and the town begins.
So he couldn't help but wonder, when he came to the town of Windsor to interview for the position of town administrator, if something similar could happen in this small Isle of Wight County town dissected by U.S. 460.
``During the interview, we talked about, `Where is Windsor going to go?' We talked about the sewer line coming in, about possible annexation. That's what it's all about - making things happen.''
On Jan. 2, DeGrand was in the small trailer that serves as Windsor's Town Hall while the brick building next door undergoes renovation. Hired as the town's administrator, a part-time position, by a unanimous council vote, he is Windsor's third administrator - its first in several years.
The town hired an administrator several years ago, but, attracted to bigger and better things, the man stayed only a couple of years. The council hired another. He lasted about a year.
With its own water department and a thriving, small-town economy, Windsor had a definite need. But the town just wasn't big enough - and couldn't pay a large enough salary - to hold onto a professional for very long. So when retired telephone executive Bobby Claud took over as mayor several years back, the administrative duties of running the town fell on him. But last November he was elected to the County Board.
So as of this month, Windsor would have been left with nobody willing to spend time at the helm.
The Town Council took care of half the responsibilities in December, when Vice Mayor Wesley Garris was appointed mayor. But Garris works at Newport News Shipbuilding.
The search was on soon after the election to find somebody to run the town. The council received 54 applications, from as far away as Texas.
Meanwhile, DeGrand, a 53-year-old retired Air Force colonel living in York County, was taking his time looking for a job after he retired last January.
``When I retired, I planned to take a year and a half to two years off to settle down and find what I really wanted to do. I wanted something new, something different, something I thought I'd enjoy.''
After 28 years of traveling the world with the Air Force, DeGrand had some settling to do.
He graduated from Lindbergh High School in St. Louis County in 1960. His late father, a chemical engineer with brewing giant Anheuser-Busch Cos., was Sunset Hills' first mayor.
DeGrand went on to Washington University in St. Louis and graduated in 1966 with a bachelor's degree in architecture. He was introduced to the military through ROTC at college, during a critical time in U.S. history.
``Then, it was get drafted or go in the service,'' he said. ``The war in Vietnam wasn't very popular. Neither was the military.''
But DeGrand says he had no doubts about what he wanted to do.
``I wanted to fly. Not just fly - I wanted to fly fast.''
He finished his pilot's training at Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma in 1967. Soon, he was flying F-4s with the 389th and 390th Tactical Fighter squadrons at Da Nang Air Base in Vietnam. He flew 225 combat missions and 450 combat hours from May 1968 to April 1969.
After serving later in Japan and Texas, he settled in March 1976 at Osan Air Base in Korea. He refers to that assignment today as running a ``mini-city.''
``We had a 5,000-acre gunnery range. I had to deal with the villagers on the periphery of the range, had to allow for them to use the land for farming, to use the sea for fishing. I was responsible for food services, for the water supply, electric power. We had three diesel-operated generators. The water had to be purified. It gave me a flavor in the military of what a civilian community is like.
``I really enjoyed it.''
And DeGrand, who went back to school in the late '80s to earn his master's degree in administration from Central Michigan University, believes he will enjoy his new assignment. It's exactly where he believes he wants to be.
He got his first taste of Virginia when he was stationed at Langley Air Force Base in February 1980.
``Yeah, I liked Virginia right away. I liked the weather, the history, the people. Our youngest son, Matt, was born here.''
By the time he was ready to retire, DeGrand and his family had managed to wend their way back to Virginia, the place they had decided to make their home. In 1992, he began his tour as director of maintenance management and training, Headquarters Air Combat Command, at Langley. He was responsible for aircraft maintenance policy, procedures, training, information systems and technical data, as well as Air Force and contract engineering and technical services programs.
Last week, he was throughly involved in trying to get the construction and renovation ball rolling so the newly renovated Town Hall will be ready in time for the council meeting in February.
``I've been asking a lot of questions, doing a lot of reading,'' he said, smiling as he looked over blueprints of the building. ``We've been talking about if we've got everything we need to move in there. We've got to get it operable so we'll have a place for the Town Council to meet.''
Tall, with the kind of posture that marks him as former military man and with a hint of gray at the temples, DeGrand intends to continue living in Yorktown until Matt graduates from high school. His older son, Alec, is a sophomore majoring in chemistry at Penn State. His wife, Barbara, is a homemaker.
Since retiring from the Air Force, DeGrand has enjoyed golf, cooking and gardening.
``We had about 30 tomato plants in the garden this year. My wife canned 24 quarts this summer.''
He loves making soup, especially in the winter. And his family's favorite dish is his version of beef stroganoff.
For now, DeGrand will be commuting almost daily from Yorktown to what is still a part-time position. The council will decide later in the year if it will become full time.
That's fine with the colonel who has found a new command.
``My wife's just glad I've finally gotten back to work,'' he said with a chuckle. ``I'm excited.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]
TAKING CHARGE
Staff photo by MICHAEL KESTNER
DeGrand, a retired Air Force colonel, does his work from a trailer
that's acting as Windsor's Town Hall while renovations are being
made to the brick structure next door.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE INTERVIEW by CNB