Bromilow uses his rich past to serve Elon’s future
Alex Baker
March 17, 2009
Neil Bromilow, Elon's Director of Construction Management
With the self-proclaimed attention of a knat, Neil Bromilow has voluntarily lived in more cities around the world than the average age of a college student. From Saigon and Londonderry to Virginia and California, Bromilow now calls Gibsonville his home and couldn’t be happier.
Not many students around Elon know the name Neil Bromilow, but none of us would be here without him. As the director of construction management, Bromilow is responsible for every building’s conception and construction on campus.
However, campus construction was not always Bromilow’s passion. For 20 years he served in the United States Navy in many different roles including being a member of the construction battalion maintenance unit, a Navy advisor and eventually the title of Commander.
From civil engineer to Commander
As a young boy growing up surrounded by his sandbox and Tonka trucks in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Bromilow realized he liked to solve problems. His father was the Dean of Engineering at New Mexico State University, which allowed Bromilow the opportunity to study civil engineering at the school as well.
In 1969, the year Bromilow was expected to graduate he received a letter in the mail. “I received a letter from Uncle Sam,” said Bromilow. “They said they had an opportunity for me to do something for them in the army in Vietnam.”
The thought of service was appealing to Bromilow he was not keen to join the Army. “I wasn’t into marching,” said Bromilow. However, the Navy seemed to be a perfect fit.
“I went to San Diego once as a kid and saw the ocean and thought this is cool. Then harbor cruise and saw all the big shops and thought, wow, this is really cool.”
From then on Bromilow was building model ships but there was no water in Las Cruces for him to test his inventions. The Navy provided him with the perfect opportunity to combine his interests.
In the Navy, Bromilow remained true to his passion of engineering. As a member of the Civil Engineer Corps he helped build the water lines and buildings for the Navy. Once he was recognized for his impressive work he was on the move and hasn’t seemed to rest since.
In his travels Bromilow has built power systems for bases in California, made cinder blocks for Vietnamese homes, advised Vietnamese officers, commanded Navy radio systems from Northern Ireland and built structures for NATO in Iceland.
By 1989 he had two children and a wife who were very overwhelmed by the extensive moving from country to country and decided to retire from the Navy as a commander. “My wife never got used to moving around, however it made us more open to meet people. You couldn’t afford to wait a long time to meet people because you never knew when you would be leaving,” said Bromilow.
At the time of Bromilow’s retirement he was stationed Virginia, which provided the step to his next job at the University of Richmond as the assistant to the physical plant director.
Growth at Elon
Elon University hired Bromilow in 1995 to be the director of the physical plant. As a one-man show he arrived on the scene when Elon was a mere 900,000 square feet. Since then he has had a hand in every single building raised on Elon’s campus, including McMichael, Belk Library, the Greek courts and the expansion of Danieley Center.
When it started Bromilow was single handedly in charge of communication between contractors, architects, mechanics and electricians for the development of the new buildings being construction. Almost 19 years after his arrival at Elon there are three full time staff and one part time staff and 150 employees working on the construction management team and physical plant at Elon.
Also under Bromilow’s thumb has been the prolific growth of the campus. Reaching 1.8 million square feet, Elon is almost double from what it was when he arrived.
Bromilow is still in charge of communication between all the players involved in construction around Elon, most currently Linder Hall located in the academic village. “I like to solve problems,” Bromilow stated. “There are about 300 people I am managing and responsible for per job. It is a big amount to maintain.”
While Elon is currently in the middle of creating a Master Plan for the next 10 years, Bromilow is unsure if Elon will maintain the amount of growth Elon has seen in the past few years. “We know where we have been and if you look back in time it was pretty flat. However, in the 90’s Elon really grew,” said Bromilow. “It would be hard to sustain that type of growth.”
A face in the community
Though growth is not planed to remain at such high levels, Bromilow will be around to take care of the small progress that will be taking place. With plans to add a convocation center and renovating Powell for the new JCM masters program he will have his hands full.
Always noticed for having a hat on his head, Bromilow can be found walking around campus or working busily in his office at the Physical Plant. However Elon is not his only commitment. As the Chairman of the Downtown Revitalization Committee of Gibsonville, Bromilow works to organize farmer’s markets and concerts in the area.
Below, Bromilow discusses the best life advice he has ever received.
