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Fabric of AU

Charlie Dickerson

The job well done is the one nobody notices. At least that’s what Charlie Dickerson believes. But to those who know, this man of few words–but plenty of action–is instrumental to the Fabric of AU.

By: Andrew J. Beckner

The Fixer

Charlie Dickerson has worked in property management long enough to know that seeing the beam of a flashlight bouncing in the dark, amid a rainstorm at 2 a.m., is a bad sign. And that’s what Charlie was doing on that night a year-and-a-half ago: looking for signs. Are there trees down? Has campus lost power? Are the roads clear? These are the things he looks for when there’s a storm. These are the things he looks for when there isn’t a storm. Whether it’s 2 p.m. or 2 a.m., Charlie is Anderson University’s sentry.  

From his post inside a pickup truck, cruising slowly on Kingsley Road, there was that bouncing light… coming from the backyard of the President’s House. “I was worried,” Charlie said. “I thought, ‘I need to see if they’re alright.’” Turns out, the house was fine, a discovery already made by the man holding the flashlight: Anderson University President Evans Whitaker. 

“I made my way over to where he was. The power was out, and there was a tree blocking the driveway. But we realized there wasn’t anything we needed to take care of at the house. So, he said, ‘Well, I better let you get back to it and check out the rest of the campus,’” Charlie said. But as the two men parted ways, Charlie heard a snap.

That snap was the sound of President Whitaker’s ankle. In the dark, on muddy ground, he’d twisted it so badly, both men feared it was broken. Charlie didn’t bother to call 911. He got a chainsaw out of his truck, cut up the tree blocking the driveway, then helped the President get in the passenger seat. Just a few minutes later, Dr. Whitaker was being treated in the emergency room.  

You can call Charlie Dickerson many things. A sentry. An ambulance driver. An arborist. Associate vice president for facilities and campus safety. All are accurate.  Just call him The Fixer.

The about The Liar?

Call him that, and Director of Campus Safety Eddie Aman—one of Charlie’s closest colleagues—might bristle. “(Charlie) is a man of character and great integrity. He’s just a good Christian man,” Aman said.  Yet how do you explain how Charlie Dickerson gets creative with the truth? Because when you ask him how many hours he works per week, this is what he says: “It ebbs and flows. Fifty is kind of the baseline. That’s a typical week.”

But here’s what he doesn’t tell you: for Charlie and his team, there is no such thing as a typical week. “There have been so many times when I’ve said, ‘Charlie, you deserve a day off. You should take a day off,’” said Jody Bryant. As associate vice president of guest and auxiliary services, she works as closely with Charlie and his team as anyone. She sees the work he puts in and the 24/7 mentality he brings as a lead-by-example guy.  

“He’ll look me dead in the eye and tell me, ‘But I want to be here. I want to be a part of it all. I want to be a part of the solution,’” Bryant said. That’s what facilities and maintenance workers do: they find solutions. Their hands, ever hidden, prop up a foundation that would crack without them. That’s Charlie Dickerson’s calling, one he’s been answering for years.  

He grew up just south of Anderson in the little town of Starr, South Carolina. He didn’t have to go far to find his first role in higher education. Back in 2001, he joined Erskine College in nearby Abbeville County as an HVAC technician. Over the next 13 years, he moved up to a supervisory role before becoming assistant director of facilities. In that time—and especially once Erskine began working with Aramark, an outside vendor, to handle its physical plant operations—he learned the value of collaboration. With Aramark, Charlie was responsible for helping onboard other organizations around the region.  

“I really learned a lot from the Aramark Corporation,” he said. “I had the opportunity to start up a lot of accounts with different college locations. It gave me a wide view of how other schools do work. Aramark has a robust training program that I took advantage of. It allowed me to be diverse in how I manage properties.”

There comes a point in any career where you hit a wall. That happened to Charlie when his career with Aramark plateaued around the same time Anderson University was looking for someone to fill the role of physical plant director. It was AU. It was near his hometown. It was a chance at advancement. Three wins. “I always had Anderson on my bucket list. I thought, ‘Hey, if there ever was an opportunity I would want to find, it would be at Anderson.’”

Charlie took the job in 2014 and moved up to executive director just two years later. And, in 2023, he became the University’s first associate vice president for facilities and campus safety.

He dismisses any talk that he deserves it. “I mean, it’s nice to have received a title. I just always felt like if I do my job, if I give everything that I can, natural transitions just happen. There are things that come with titles that help me do my job better,” he said.

That’s classic Charlie Dickerson. It’s not a title. It’s a tool to make him better at what he does.  “He’s the ultimate go-getter,” Bryant said. “What doesn’t he do? He saves us all.”

“Without him, I don’t know that we could do what we do for students in the residence halls or anything else, really. He takes care of all of us.”

Jon Gropp
Associate Vice President for Student Development & Dean of Students

He doesn’t do it alone. On that point, Charlie is clear.

“I get a lot of the recognition for the work,” he said. “The truth is, it’s those other leaders that make all that happen.”  There are a lot of them. When you take into account Trojan Transit drivers, Campus Safety officers and dozens of contractors, Charlie is ultimately responsible for the work of about 100 people. They are the men and women who build, inspect and repair Anderson University facilities —and, of course, those who protect everyone on campus from harm.

“My job is to set the tone with all the people that work with me. It’s always a positive and helpful tone, I think. I have to keep a positive attitude, a can-do attitude. I think that (attitude) blends through all the employees,” Charlie said.  

That positive attitude doesn’t go unnoticed. Jeff Payton sees it daily in his role as AU’s physical plant director and as a member of Charlie’s leadership team.  “He’s just a super good boss, a super good guy to work for,” Payton said. “He’s always thinking of how to make things better for any and everything on campus. He wants to do what’s right for the students, for the staff, for the faculty and for his guys. He’s never idle. I’ll put it that way.”

Not even at 2 a.m. during a dangerous storm, as President Whitaker witnessed. Turns out, his ankle wasn’t broken—just badly sprained. Just imagine what would have happened if Charlie hadn’t been there? It’s something First Lady Diane Whitaker doesn’t want to contemplate.

“Charlie does not stop,” she said. “He never asks for anything for himself. He’s always looking out for his team and for everyone else. Anything and everything.”

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