Last Friday, I ran into a couple of old friends at a pre-bid meeting. As the conversation progressed, the topic of Thomas R. Wyant, JR, AIA, CSI came up. Tom was my first employer after I graduated from Virginia Tech in 1979. He was a client to my friends who are a surveyor and geotechnical engineer respectively. We reminisced for several minutes about him.
While Tom was not the easiest individual to work for, I probably learned more about the profession of architecture from him than any other single person. In this vein, Tom was an expert in the technical aspects of putting a building together. He was very particular about how we detailed things, but would let us draw things up as we saw fit. On a daily basis, he would make the rounds in the drafting room and would look over our shoulders to review our work. If we could justify what we did, he would say simply, yeah, that’ll work, and go on to visit with the next drafter. If there was a problem with what we did, he would help us to solve it.
Probably the most important thing Tom did for us was to introduce us to specification writing, arguably an unusual thing to do with a couple of first and second year interns. He taught us to use MasterSpec and SpecText and in doing so, indirectly taught us CSI SectionFormat. Also, in using both master systems, he demonstrated that at that time, some sections of each were better than the other. In so doing, he gave us the opportunity to exercise some critical thinking about which component or system was more appropriate for the project(s) at hand and how best to communicate the information to the construction team. I cannot think of a better way to mentor.
Tom is also responsible for my joining CSI, although he was never aware of it, as I joined five years after I left Tom’s firm. In this regard, he led by example. Through him, I learned that CSI is the place to go for building information. His mentoring led me to connections with literally thousands of experts nationwide. For that I will always be grateful.
Charlottesville Architect 