The clean smell of fresh paint wafts from an open window at the International Center onto Madison Street west of State. From the windowsill, a WUOM talk program streams from Fred Wicker’s worn CD-radio-cassette player patched with masking tape.
Wicker uses a paint roller to soak up off-white paint from a tray. Standing on the floor, he raises it to the ceiling with help from a telescoping pogo stick attached to the roller handle.
There are few paint splatters on Wicker, but that doesn’t mean he’s not working hard. “People tease me about that: ‘You working today?’ But my dad used to say, ‘You don’t have to have paint on you to be a painter.’ I pride myself on not getting too much paint on me.”
New technology has revolutionized most folks’ jobs, but for Wicker, not so much.
The tools Wicker uses in his University Unions job haven’t changed since the mid-’70s when he began working for U-M. The brushes and rollers that worked for him then work just as well today.
Wicker enjoys working in the University setting. “It’s a most congenial environment,” he says.
The 1967 Detroit Mackenzie High School graduate painted showrooms at Chrysler’s Jefferson Avenue assembly plant in Detroit before landing a job in 1976 as a painter in the U-M plant department.
While he once painted outside, that virtually ended when he began working for University Unions in 1980. Since then, he’s only had to work outside to paint window treatments and the Union patio. But even those jobs are dwindling, as new window materials don’t need paint.
The Michigan Union, Michigan League and Peirpont Commons are Wicker’s key areas of concern. He shows for work in white painter pants, a denim shirt that says “University Unions” at the pocket, a white Tigers hat with a blue English D and gym shoes.
Paint jobs begin with work orders e-mailed to Wicker. Next, he visits the building or offices he’ll be painting to let staff know how long the job will take, and to determine if equipment must be moved or if it simply can be covered.
The floors, remaining desks and computer monitors are covered with drop cloths or plastic. “Then I prep the walls, meaning I have to scrape and patch sand and prime. If there’s an area with greasy hand prints then I’ll have to scrub that down.”
After years of painting nearly everything off-white, a program was initiated in which managers could choose the color of their offices.
“I enjoy painting different colors; it breaks the monotony,” Wicker says. His favorites? “Orange, peach, some of the blues — it depends on the shade of orange. A lot of people pick deep tone colors and that requires three to four coats sometimes.” His least favorite is dark charcoal grey and a shade of green.
Off the job, Wicker and wife La Cheryl enjoy ballroom dancing and roller-skating — the four-wheel variety. “We used to belong to a roller-skating club and travel around the country and skate,” he says. “It’s exercise and we enjoy the people, the camaraderie; we enjoy each other.”
The couple met in 1969 on the way to a wedding. He was the best man for his best friend, who was marrying La Cheryl’s cousin. They married in 1972.
Wicker says he’s proud of sons Marcus, 23, in graduate school; Brian, 20, a college senior; and wife La Cheryl, who after being laid off from her job as a U-M administrative assistant returned to college, earned a business degree and returned to the University to work at the Comprehensive Cancer Center as an assistant to the director of Research, Finance and Facilities.
The weekly Spotlight features staff members at the University. To nominate a candidate, please contact the Record staff at [email protected].
