A Clean Living
In heat or rain, 13-year groundskeeper loves keeping campus clean, describes littering students as his “job security.”
By Katie Swetala
Skiff Staff

Students often notice the clean, green lawns on campus, but they don’t always notice the people who work in the cold rain and extreme Texas heat to keep it that way.

Esco Weatherspoon Jr., an equipment manager for the Physical Plant, is one of those people. Along with the rest of the lawn crew, he works to maintain and care for the landscaping on campus.

He plants, fertilizes, mows and pulls weeds out of grass. He picks up trash in parking lots, lawns and sidewalks.

But it is all in a day’s work for Weatherspoon.

“I like to think of littering students as my job security,” he said. “If they didn’t make such a mess and leave trash everywhere, then TCU probably wouldn’t need me here.”

After serving in the U.S. Army for six years in Germany, Weatherspoon moved to Texas in 1990 to spend the summer with his sister and her family. Weatherspoon needed a summer job and applied to TCU.

“I guess it is still summer because I’m still here,” Weatherspoon said.

The 13 years have rolled by quickly for Weatherspoon.

Weatherspoon said he remembers a TCU campus very different from the one today. He remembers a campus with no Tom Brown/Pete Wright Residential Community. In addition to the physical changes of campus, the faces have changed too.

But, among the changes during the past 13 years, one constant remains.

Weatherspoon’s coworkers say he continues to showcase his pleasant and outgoing personality. He waves to students, faculty and visitors and smiles to those passing by his work-area.

“I enjoy the fact that I am able to get along with the students,” he said. “I believe that giving a friendly face makes a friendly place.”

Weatherspoon also gets along well with his coworkers. They joke. They laugh.

“Esco is a friendly and outgoing guy, who makes coming to work fun,” said Mark Hart, who has worked with Weatherspoon for about two years. “He is a really hard worker.”

Weatherspoon said he likes to work hard, but of course he says he also enjoys the weekend. He likes to spend time with his children — Brandon, 12; Esco III, 19; and Shankia, 20. He likes going to the park or out dancing. He enjoys catching up on television and listening to music. And, if he gets a chance, he likes to wash his cars.

But, as the weekend passes, Weatherspoon gears up for another week of work out on the lawns. And sometimes he does not always get the best working conditions.

“I work a lot in the wet and a lot in the hot, but it’s a job and it’s for you guys (the students),” he said.

Weatherspoon may be working in either pouring rain or boiling heat, but he still has a mile-wide smile. He said he loves to smile and enjoys keeping those around him happy, whether it be a coworker, passing stranger or even a littering student.

“I love my job, point blank,” he said.

Katie Swetala