From Humble Beginnings, Will Easley, Man of the Year

By Woody Jenkins

CENTRAL — Times were hard when Will Easley was born in 1944 in the family’s small farmhouse in rural St. Helena Parish.  But times were about to get even worse.

Will was the youngest of five children of Jimmy Jackson Easley and Jewell Kirby Easley.

The house consisted of two rooms — a front fireplace room and a kitchen.  Later, they added two rooms for the five kids.  The family got electricity a month after Will was born, but there was no indoor plumbing until the 1950’s.

“We were a poor, hardworking family,” Will remembers, “but people around us were in the same shape.”

The family had 17 acres of land and 12 head of dairy cattle.  The kids’ job was to milk the cows twice a day and take care of the work around the farm.  They also raised butter beans, tomatoes, and corn.

The family sold the butter beans for 10 cents a pound at the grocery store in Kentwood, or 12 cents a pound for store credit.  Over the years, Will ate so many butter beans that “I never want to eat another one!” he said recently.

In addition to farming, Will’s dad was a road grader, but the constant exposure to dust took its toll, and he became very ill.  He couldn’t work any longer.

Will’s dad’s life was on the line, and he went to the Charity Hospital in New Orleans for help.  He stayed there for more than a year.  Ultimately, they removed one of his lungs, but he survived.

“I know they say a lot of bad things about the Charily Hospital,”  Will said, “but it saved my dad’s life and gave him 25 years we wouldn’t have had.”

The main transportation for Will in the 1950’s was by horseback.  He’d ride two and a half miles to the store to get horse feed or Prince Albert tobacco for his dad.  Out of a quarter, the Prince Albert was 18 cents a can.  An R.C. Cola was six cents, which still left a penny.

An R.C. Cola and a Moonpie were a young boy’s delight in St. Helena Parish in the 1950’s.

Like most in St. Helena, the Eas-ley family felt raising dairy cows was better than beef cattle.  “Dairy cows would provide you a monthly income,” Will said, “but beef cattle was only once a year.  The dairy business gave you a chance to go to work everyday and be productive.”

It was during those days that Will Easley learned the virtues of hard work and thriftiness.

“We had to work hard.  There was no choice,”  he said, “and we had to watch every penny.”

Will was red-haired and freckled face, which got him a lot of teasing among the kids at Greensburg High School.  But he was popular and was a class leader, playing football for the school.  Despite the red hair, he was named Class Favorite and Most Likely to Succeed.

“Fortunately, Mrs. Meadows, the principal’s wife, took an interest in me.  She taught geometry and awakened in me an interest in math,” he said.

While a senior at Greensburg, Will met a beautiful young freshman named Dot Womack.  But they didn’t date until several years later.

Easley went to LSU and studied agriculture.  But in the summer after his freshman year, he got a job doing surveying.  That led him to transfer his major to civil engineering, which is where Mrs. Meadows’ lessons came in handy.

After college, Will’s first job was in New York City.  “He was there for a month, and his absence almost killed me,” Dot remembers.

“I had to have somebody with me on these out-of-state jobs!” he said.  “So he told me we were getting married!” she said.  “But I didn’t mind.”

During their first year of marriage, Will took a job in Kansas.  “It was a good thing for us to be up there, because it made us rely on each other,” she said.

They moved to Baton Rouge in 1969 and lived on Mission Drive in North Baton Rouge.  “Our neighbors, Glenn and Judy Stephens, were moving to Central, and we decided to move next door to them here,” Will said.  They are still next door neighbors 41 years later.

Will went to work for Homer Knost but the company shut down in 1973.  He and four partners started a firm that year, and in 1980 split it into three companies.  One of the results was Trade Construction Company.  Will worked out of his shop behind his house.  In 1996, he bought out his partner.

Early on, Trade Construction was an industrial contractor but over time it has developed into a pipe fabrication company.

Will’s heritage of hard work and thrift has paid off.  Today clients include Exxon, Williams Pipeline, BASF, James Construction, Turner Industries, Boh Brothers, and many others.  Trade Construction has 70 employees and does annual sales of $12 million.

Some of Will’s first employees are still with him.

Today, son Brennan runs the business and Will claims to be semi-retired.  “I’m still available to help him anyway he needs me,” he said.  The company is owned 50-50 by Will and Brennan.  Will emphasized that Brennan wasn’t given 50 percent of the business but purchased it himself.

Pipelines are being built up and down the country, and Trade Construction fabricates giant pipes on skids and then ships them wherever they are needed.  It is a modular fabrication.

Will Easley’s involvement in Central community affairs began when he moved here in 1969.  He was one of the original supporters of Central Private School.

The Easley home was never in the Central school district, and they never knew where their kids would be assigned to school.  So getting behind Central Private was an easy decision.  Dot taught at Central Private, and the family worked hard for the school’s success.

One humorous thing sprung out of the commitment to Central Private.  Paying tuition wasn’t easy for the Easley family, but Will took on extra work every year to pay the bill.  He would cut hay, sell it, and use the proceeds to pay the tuition.

Dot would arrive at the school with $2,400 or more in crisp $100 bills.  “They must have thought we were gamblers to have so much cash!  If only they knew how hard we had to work for that money!”

When the new school system was being created in 2006, Will Easley’s name was considered by Gov. Kathleen Blanco.

“I knew our values were going down in America.  I believe good community schools are one of the most important ways to turn things around,” he said.

He was appointed and took office with the new Central Community School Board in January of 2007.

Thus, he and the other new school board members embarked on the process of starting a new school system with virtually no resources.

While the school board was sworn in in January 2007, they didn’t take control of the four public schools in Central until July 2007.  During the interim, they had to hire a Superintendent and central office staff, principals, and teachers.

Unfortunately, the constitutional amendment creating the school system provided exactly zero dollars for start-up expenses between January and July 2007.  So the Central community went to work and raised $300,000 for start-up expenses through Cooking for Our Kids.

Will Easley was worried about how the taxpayers could afford a School Board office, since there was no taxpayer money to work with.  As a result, he took it upon himself to personally pay 75 percent of the costs of constructing the new Central School Board office on Hooper Road.

Known as a budget hawk who watches every penny belonging to the Central school system, Will also has a reputation with his wife Dot.  “Will is so tight that he would still have the first dollar he ever made, if I hadn’t spent it!” she said.

Tight, yes.  Stingy no.

When a disabled man needed a new driveway, Will went by to tell the man he was going to build him a new one.  The man said he wasn’t going to accept charity and refused.  But the next day, workmen arrived and built the driveway.

When an employee was leaving on vacation with his kids and his old car broke down, Will told him he had to go on that vacation and gave him a car to use for the trip.

As Darryl Stockwell, who retired from Trade Construction after 22 years, said, “He’s one of the finest people you would ever know, not just in Central but anywhere.”

Central schools Supt. Mike Faulk said, “Will Easley is a man who well represents this community.  He thinks very carefully about each decision.  And he’s never thinking about himself but always the community.  You have to respect that.  He’s exceptional, and he’s a pleasure to work with.”

School board president Sharon Browning said, “Will Easley is probably the most honest, fair minded person I know.  He’s unbiased and always wants to examine all sides.  Everyone you talk to will tell you that same thing: Will Easley is as good as they come.”

Easley said, “Every community needs good public schools, and every public school system needs a good community.  We all depend on each other, including public, private, and home schools.”

“I’ve enjoyed serving on the school board.  It is a wonderful opportunity to meet so many good people here in Central.  We’ll be very happy to see our new school complex up and running.  The school system is really the future of Central.  Education is preparation for life, and that’s what we want our schools to be in Central”

Editor’s Note: Will and Dot Easley have two children — Brennan and Andi. Brennan and his wife Rhonda have three children — Clay, Bennett, and Katelyn.  Andi and her husband Shane Kirkpatrick have three children — Britton, Harrison, and Hayes.  One of Will’s proudest relationships is that with the members of the Central Masonic Lodge #442.  Trade Construction Company is located at 17043 Joor Road in the City of Central.