Honoring A Friend of the Cape Girardeau SportsPlex
Nearly every day, we hear from people who have been watching the progress on the Cape Girardeau SportsPlex. This is natural as it’s a high-profile project—not just in size and scope. The 121,000-square-foot, world-class facility features two indoor soccer fields, six regulation basketball courts that convert into 12 volleyball courts, a concessions area, meeting rooms, an office and a variety of other amenities. Penzel Construction is keenly aware that city officials, taxpayers, parents and athletes all eagerly await the opportunity to use this new facility. We are happy to say the project progresses on-time and is scheduled to open in the spring.
Recently, we received a message through Penzel Construction’s Facebook page from Carrie McClard, a local hair stylist.
She noted that one of her customers had mentioned how much her 100-year-old father enjoyed watching the construction project. “He is so fascinated and curious about all of the things that are happening across the road,” noted McClard. “I was hoping to try to arrange a tour,” McClard added.
The Reverend Elbridge Wesley Bartley, Jr. (pictured at left), a retired Methodist minister, lives at the Missouri State Veterans Home, just across U.S. Highway 61 from the Cape Girardeau SportsPlex site. The fifth generation Methodist minister and Vanderbilt University Divinity School alum had taken an interest in watching the large machinery, the earthwork, the pouring of the concrete footings and the steel erection. Unbeknown to Penzel Construction, he has been watching the construction of the facility on an almost-daily basis. According to his daughter, Linda Ault, “He is very interested in the project.”
So, Phil Penzel, President of Penzel Construction reached out to Ault, and set a date to give Reverend Bartley a full tour of the new facility in mid-December. Unfortunately, on that day, Bartley wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t make the trip across the road to see for himself what was happening. So, Penzel and Brian Paul, Senior Project Manager at Gray Design Group, the project’s Architect-of-Record did the next best thing—they brought the project to Bartley.
Paul prepared a 17-page book detailing the progress of the project with photos, floor plans and renderings. Ault presented her father with the book on Christmas Eve. Bartley remarked how “impressed and honored” he was with the presentation that was dedicated to him.
Sometimes it’s nice to slow down and pay attention to the people around us. We might never have known about this fascinating man who has quietly watched us work over the past several months had McClard not contacted us. Since then, we have learned that Reverend Bartley not only ministered throughout Missouri for 45 years, he also served his country as a World War II veteran. “He enlisted in the Navy, but was transferred to the Marines to become a Chaplain,” said Ault. “He served on Roi-Namur, in the Marshall Islands and later in Japan, after the surrender.”
Reverend Bartley is also the only surviving member of the Vanderbilt University Divinity School Class of 1940 (pictured top row, second from the left). And, in 1915, 100 years after his father, The Rev. E.W. Bartley Sr., graduated from the Vanderbilt University Divinity School, he established a scholarship at Vanderbilt to inspire a new generation of Missouri Methodist church seminarians.
“The truth is, we’re the ones who are ‘impressed and honored’ with Reverend Bartley’s tireless service to God and country,” said Penzel. “Thank you, sir.”
The Reverend E.W. Bartley, Jr. photographs: Vanderbilt University
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