The Roanoker - March 2014 - 14

DAN SMITH

"The word dude has
come full circle.
In the old days
of the West, it
used to mean
the uninitiated
and tenderfoot,
as in a dude ranch.
Then came the
California surfing craze,
and a dude was the ultimate in cool,
the guy with sun glasses and a Woody
(better not make that lower case). Of
course, Jeff Bridges redefined dude
once again for the post-modern age
in 'The Big Lebowski.' A dude became
someone who was so un-cool that he
actually became cool."
SPORTS DUDE

BUSINESS DUDE
Brian Redd discovered pretty quickly that "Ferrum College is a long
way from the NFL," and so, being the dude he is, he adjusted. He
wound up at the University of Ulster in Belfast, came home and went
into banking, which is also a long way from the NFL for the former
fullback/linebacker from Pulaski.
He's worked for a variety of banks - First Union, Wachovia, Bank
of America - and is now a vice president of Business Banking with
Bank of America. It's a position he's settled into, holding it down for
10 years, building his social and professional networks and being as
much of "a man's man and a lady's man" as he possibly can because
that's what he believes true dude-dom involves.
"Man's man," he says with authority. He defines it thusly: "There's
a slim line between tough guy and metrosexual ... A man's man is a
guy you look in the eye and trust. You can leave him alone with your
girl and know he'll respect the relationship. He's a guy you can go
into a dark alley with. It's the kind of man I am."
That being a bankin', BMW 550I-drivin',
lady killer in a high-end suit. That's Brian
Redd. The suit's important in his world
because "life's easier for you when you
[dress properly]. You need to give yourself
every advantage. I want to take care of my
appearance. I could go out in sweats and
T-shirt and be looked at as a thug, or I can
wear a nice business suit and see a very different response to me."
Redd is a social guy. He works out
regularly and he helps organize young professionals
(he's 37) in the Roanoke
area because he's all
about networking.
The most important
aspect of Brian Redd as
a dude? "It's respect.
It's important to learn
and even more important to give and
receive."

Roland Lazenby is 61 and his production of books is roughly one
a year for his life. And how's this for dudeness? He's a graduate of
VMI and Hollins. He's taught at Tech and Radford. He's been a
newspaperman (a very, very good one) and he herded that bunch
of wild-haired college would-be journalists at Tech a few years ago
when they covered the mass murder. The nation's big media boys
and girls were impressed - maybe annoyed, too - at being outdone
by kids. Roland's kids from the college paper.
His impressive book production has "dude" written all over it:
"Better than five dozen, a few of which are actually pretty good."
The next one, "Michael Jordan: The Life," coming this spring, could
be a monster. Like all the others, it's a sports book. He's already
working on two more and for the first time, we'll see something
besides sports. He won't say what.
He works for ESPN Radio in Roanoke/Lynchburg, but he's known best at ESPN as an
NBA expert of the first rank. He's made regular appearances on that network nationally and
internationally to talk about his first love (after wife Karen and the kids and the grands).
How does he see himself qualifying as a dude? "I'm so un-cool that I'm actually cool.
I might have a hard time selling that to my kids, though. But 'The Dude Abides,' as the
saying goes. And I'm always abiding. I've spent a fair amount of my life in a bathrobe,
which could also help me qualify under the Lebowski clause."

14 MARCH/APRIL 2014

THE

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