Rusty’s Story

“Drexel Furniture was where I grew up.”

Rusty Helms was still in high school in 1976 when he started at Drexel Furniture’s Plant 1. The company saw promise in him—covering his tuition and books at CVCC and paying him full-time while he split hours between work and studying furniture production. By 1979, he was leading a drawer assembly line producing 700–800 drawers a day.

But it was the Engineering Building where Rusty found his footing—turning furniture designs into real, buildable products. “We had to make sure the design could actually be built,” he said. “You had to know the plant, the people, and what was possible.”

He credits mentor Charles Garrison for showing him what it meant to be a product engineer. “He was the most wonderful man,” Rusty recalls. “He showed me how to do the job right.”

Rusty would help lead a major shift forward: learning 3D computer drawing in Chicago—then cutting-edge—which helped Drexel speed up its design-to-manufacturing process. “It changed everything.”

Drexel wasn’t just a job. Rusty’s grandfather worked at Plant 1 for over 50 years. His extended family worked there too. “It was more than work—it was life.” When he got married, coworkers threw him a bachelor party in the engineering office.

He was at Plant 1 during the early meetings that signaled the end. “I told them—if you want to be here, you have to work like you want to stay.” When Plants 3 & 5 burned, Rusty was in China. “I wanted to lay down on the floor and cry,” he said. “My whole family was there.”

Now, as we break ground on the Innovation Campus where Rusty once stood we honor him and so many others who shaped this place with skill, care, and heart. Their work built more than furniture. It built a legacy.