Wilbert Thurston has worked at job sites up and down the East Coast. None fills him with as much pride as working at Virginia Tech.

Thurston is a skilled concrete mason working on a maroon brick sidewalk that will make up the largest “VT” on the Blacksburg campus.

He also is a Hokie parent.

His son, Chad Thurston, graduated in 2011 with a degree in environmental economics. While at Virginia Tech, Chad Thurston met his wife, the former Atiyeh Davis, who graduated in 2009 with a degree in civil engineering.

“I’m very proud to be here because my son went to school here,” Wilbert Thurston said.

Thurston, originally from Louisa, Virginia, works for Faulconer Construction Company, one of the subcontractors Barton Malow Company hired for the sweeping Upper Quad renovation for the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets.