Master Road Scholar

Master Road Scholar: is it an educational experience, a life’s goal, or a state of mind? For those of us in the profession, it is all three, an educational experience, a goal, and a state of mind.

We all strive to improve our education, particularly when pay increases may be contingent upon furthering one’s professional education. As technology continues to advance, we strive to keep up. One way we do this is to take courses, such as those offered through the UNH Technology Transfer Center, or T² as it’s affectionately called, at the University of New Hampshire. T² understands our needs and creates classes that match those needs.

Whether we have just gotten into the public works profession or have been in it for many years, we take our job seriously. For many of us it becomes a life’s goal to strive to be the best we can be and to bring to our community an excellence of work ethic that complements the community’s goals. Our goals are to leave the community better than we found it. One way to do this is to educate ourselves to new techniques, innovative strategies and new products.

Finally, a state of mind—it’s the point when you feel confident that you have given your best, done your homework and made a difference. Your job becomes the most important part of you. You find yourself reacting to situations automatically that says, "this job is important to me and to my community. I must do my best." You’re proud of your work.

Being a Master Road Scholar says to everyone—I take my job seriously, I’ve improved my education, my peers respect my judgement and I’ve applied what I’ve learned to better my town, my department, and most of all—myself.

Since 1996, Bruce Berry has been the Road Agent in Rindge. Prior to this position, he worked in Mason as an Assistant Road Agent and at Murray Printing Company in Massachusetts.

Bruce feels that there is a lot to learn, so he takes many classes. He likes gaining the practical experience of classes. However, he would like to pursue an engineering degree. He sends his crew to classes because "training is important and necessary." Bruce recently instructed the flagging portion of the Workzone Traffic Control workshop for the UNH T² Center.

Bruce likes to gain a different perspective of his roads and can be found biking, running, or walking. He says, "it’s a lot different than seeing the roads from the cab of a truck."

This year, Bruce testified before the state legislature. They considered making changes to the RSA that covered the springtime posting of roads. It was an educational experience. He would gladly do it again.

Bruce and Robin, married for 30 years, have 3 children and 4 grandchildren. Robin is an Equipment Operator in Mason. He says, "this is beneficial because they each understand the stress of the job, particularly in the winter."

Congratulations to Master Road Scholar Bruce Berry!