“ I just about do it all,” says Troy Odum, a self-described jack-of-all-trades. His official charge is to keep Vanderbilt University warm, cool and electrified. He is also a man who measures his coffee consumption in the number of pots — rather than the number of cups — per day.

“ It’s an old Navy habit that I haven’t been able to give up,” he explains. “Though I did quit smoking.”

His 10 years with the Navy taught him about diesel engines and gas turbines, and took him nearly around the world before he returned to Nashville, his hometown.

“ Living in Nashville, you can come to think about Vanderbilt being just a little blip on West End when you drive by,” Troy says. “But there’s so much more to it.”

In addition to his changed perception about Vanderbilt, his city has changed, too.

“ Nashville’s different, especially downtown, from when I first lived here,” laughs Troy. “You used to not go below Eighth Avenue after dark, but now Printer’s Alley is where I like to go. I like to listen to blues music.”

Some things, though, seem as though they will never change. When Troy was 12 years old, he could earn $4 by busting up blocks of coal for neighbors’ furnaces. Twenty-six years later, coal is still being used to produce power at Vanderbilt.

“ The coal plant will probably always be here because it’s simple,” says Troy. “There’s so much that can go wrong with the new turbine we installed last year, so it’s good to have an old, dependable thing around.”

— Whitney Weeks

Posted 2/24/03 at 10 a.m.