The Roanoker - March 2014 - 17

BUILDER DUDE
Time was that Barry Martin's prime directive was to blow up stuff
that needed blowing up and we're not talking coal mining here.
We're talking about bad guys. But that was then and this is now, so
when he answers the question about his years in the Marine Corps
with "if I told you, I'd have to kill you," you tend to believe him. So
we'll register that as gen-u-wine dudeness.
Martin's 40 now, has five kids (three biological, two foster-toadoption) and a full-sleeve tattoo on his right arm. He plays rugby,
rides a bright green Victory motorcycle with flames, renovates and
makes efficient homes and businesses. He co-owns a company
called Better Building Works with architect Monica Rokicki. He
says BBW is about "building performance," not just being pretty
or trendy or architecturally significant. Dudes like performance
and in this case that often means energy efficiency and not just a

building that will outlast the Coliseum.
Martin was a military brat and lived in Germany as a kid, but
graduated from Salem High and went into the Marines. He doesn't
talk much about the next few years, but he smiles the mercurial
dude smile.
Martin has a business degree and notable success in his profession.
Blow it up or build it? "Without doubt, building is more fun. It's
nice to see the finished product and know that you did something
good for someone else. Blowing things up is fun too, of course. I
love the bang and the anticipation of it. That aspect of my life was
also for the greater good."
Philosophically speaking, as a dude: "There are no real lowlights
in my life, only experiences that contributed to future successes."

Leo Hirsbrunner is a snow bunny. Always was. That, more than
anything else, sent him toward weather forecasting. A professional
football player has that junior high touchdown pass to look back
upon as a starting point. Hirsbrunner points at the blizzard of '78
that smacked down New England, where he grew up.
That storm, he says, "started to pique my interest. As I got older
I was like everyone else, yelling at the TV when the weather person
got the forecast wrong. I always thought I could do so much better
than they could. Once I went to college I realized how hard it was to
forecast for a small area. And now it's me who tries not to disappoint
the viewer with a bad forecast."
And the snow thing? "I love snow so much if Mother Nature
doesn't produce it, I make my own. I have a snow maker which I use
each winter to give my son a white Christmas."
Hirsbrunner is 42 now and is one of a team of meteorologists
at WDBJ7 in Roanoke, where weather is serious business, about a
third of any local newscast. He's from Attleboro, Mass., just across
from Providence, R.I., and graduated from Lyndon State College
in Vermont in meteorology and physics. It snowed in Lyndonville
almost constantly from November through May each year, "which
was good for me because that's my favorite part of weather forecasting ... snow ... I would say my specialty is forecasting snow storms
since I was trained in such a snow-filled environment."
So how does this work with dude-ism? "First off, my hobby is
my job. I get more excited when it snows than school children do.
My second passion is ice hockey. Love playing it and watching it."
He was in his high school marching band, which doesn't sound
very dude-ish until you hear this: "I played a trombone which was
made by my grandfather. He actually made this brass instrument
from hand in Switzerland. Most of my relatives still live in Switzerland."
Hirsbrunner has had health issues for a while now and he's missed
work or simply put a ballcap over his bald head while treating cancer
THE

R OANOKER.COM

MOLLY MEADOR

WEATHER DUDE

(the dude way). A bout with an inner ear infection left him unable
to stand and a Weather Dude must stand in front of that big green
screen. But he's back, "feeling and looking healthy."
A Weather Dude has "to grow thick skin, especially these days of
social media. People write some pretty unfriendly things when you
get a forecast wrong and today social media makes it even worse.
"It was my dream to be a meteorologist from a very young age and
I continue to live that dream. I still have to pinch myself sometimes
when I show up to WDBJ7. I see all those satellite dishes out front,
I walk in to this huge studio and I still smile."
MARCH/APRIL 2014

The Roanoker - March 2014

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