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Redding at Home with Hammer, Guitar, Stethoscope
In coordination with the Recognition and Rewards
Committee of the ECU Staff Senate, the Pieces of Eight series honoring
exceptional ECU staff members recognizes Bill Redding.
By Judy Currin
Bill Redding is as skillful examining a builder’s blueprint as he is a patient’s medical chart.
A family nurse
practitioner for 26 years, Redding spends his weekdays attending
patients at the Brody School of Medicine. He sees patients of every age
and walk of life.
“It’s nice,” Redding said. “I never know what’s coming through the door.”
On Saturday mornings he
never knows what task awaits him either. Those days, he heads out to
Pitt County’s Habitat for Humanity’s latest building project. He has
been involved with the organization since 1990. Since then, the
non-profit organization has built 42 homes to shelter low-income
families in Pitt County.
Redding’s first contact
with Habitat for Humanity was pure happenstance. “I was building stage
sets for the N.C. Academy of Dance Arts,” he said. “My daughter was
performing.”
The warehouse where he was working was across from Pitt Street, the site of Greenville’s first Habitat House.
“I saw the house being
built, so I walked over to talk with the group of volunteers,” he said.
“It’s a good program I wanted to be involved with.” He served on
Habitat’s board for five years and is now a member of the building
committee.
Redding said it’s
important for him to give back something to the community. “It’s ideal
if the service is in an area you have an interest.”
An accomplished carpenter,
Redding honed his skills in his father’s basement workshop. He was
raised in Clarence, a small town in New York State just outside of
Buffalo. Redding’s father and his nine siblings helped each other build
homes on one-acre lots fronting the family home place and adjoining
farm.
While Redding did not
build the house he shares with wife, Susan, he crafted tables, desks
and cabinets for their home from his own garage workshop. He and Susan,
a nurse practitioner at PCMH, have two daughters who would rather
design than build. Genevieve is a fashion designer in New York and
Caroline designs furniture in Raleigh.
There’s another side of
Bill that gets lots of exposure this time of year. Redding grew up
listening and learning traditional Irish tunes from his father who
played the banjo.
Now a veteran guitar player, Redding’s hobby landed him two gigs, at the Hilton and Christie’s Euro Pub on St. Patrick’s Day.
He will perform with Mike
Hamer (English) from 7 to 10 p.m. at Glennon’s at the Hilton and 11
p.m. to 2 a.m. Christie’s Euro Pub on Jarvis Street. The duo will
perform 40 to 50 traditional Celtic and Irish songs, including “Nancy
Whiskey,” “Finnegan’s Wake” and “The Rising of the Moon.”
“Danny Boy,” the love song written by Frederick Weatherly, will be a part of the musical line-up as well.
“We’ll do that too,
just because it’s so popular,” Redding said. “‘Danny Boy’ is the
“Brown-eyed Girl” of Irish music, you got to do Danny Boy.”
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