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For the North Carolina Research Campus to reach the promise its founder had in mind, it will need more people like Randy Crowell.
He's the first former Pillowtex worker employed in a scientific capacity at the biotech complex created by billionaire Dole Food owner David Murdock. He built the campus at the former Pillowtex mill complex, whose 2003 closing left thousands without jobs locally.
Murdock held out hope that the campus, which opened last October, could become a jobs magnet. And mill workers were encouraged to seek retraining to get jobs there.
Crowell spent 20 years at the mill as an electrician and electronics specialist. He worked two other jobs after Pillowtex but was laid off from one of them.
Crowell relocated to San Antonio, Texas, in 2005 to be near his daughter and a grandson who had severe birth defects. After being unable to find a job in Texas, he decided to take biotech classes at a community college to earn an associate degree. When his grandson's health improved, Crowell returned to North Carolina last fall, moving to China Grove.
He was hired at the campus in February and works as a lab technician handling DNA sequencing for the David H. Murdock Research Institute, the nonprofit group that owns and runs the campus Core Lab.
Answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q. Why did you decide to take biotech classes in community college?
I thought having 20 years experience as an electrician and in electronics repair would be enough to get me a job anywhere, but it wasn't. I had been interested in science since I was 6 years old, when our family physician let me look in his microscope. It was like another world opened up to me. Through the years, I tried to pursue it, but with no degree I was never able to get my foot in the door. In Texas, I decided to take advantage of Trade Adjustment Act benefits (which provide free tuition for jobs lost to imports.)
Q. What was the most courageous thing you did to change careers?
Just deciding to go back to school at 48 years old. It was tough, but I knew I could do it. The hardest thing to learn was algebra. Oh, man. It took me two years to learn, it was horrible. There were a lot of times I was ready to quit because of algebra. But my dream of working in medical research prevented me from quitting. I had lost my parents to cancer, some uncles and friends, and I wanted to do something to help stop the disease.
Q. What was the most surprising thing about your job?
I had never seen the instruments I run now. You go through factory training, and then they hire experts in the field as consultants for more training. It was intimidating (seeing the equipment for the first time.) The instrument I run is about the size of an office copier and costs $600,000. We did sequencing of blueberry DNA here (for N.C. State University). Right now I'm working on a nematode, a worm. From what I understand, the project is being funded by some African countries. This nematode is absolutely destroying their crops, bananas and related crops. If we can find a way to control it, we can prevent tens of thousands of people from starving to death.
Q. What advice do you have for people thinking about a career change after a layoff?
A lot of people are intimidated about going back to college, changing careers. I was 50 years old when I graduated. A lot of people think that's too old to change careers. To me, that's an advantage. When I came into this place, not only did I bring biotech experience, I brought experience I gained in other places. The skills I learned working in the mill I use almost every day in the lab, like instrumentation calibration. For me it was a natural transition.
Q. Many former Pillowtex workers had little formal education training. What do you say to those who may think they don't have a future in biotech?
If that's what they want to do, they can do it. Learning to study again, that was hard, but it's never too late to go back to college and retrain. I got trained, got experience and came back to work at the same place. I make twice the money I made at the mill.
