Goochland County Chamber of Commerce

Posts Tagged ‘nuckols’

    It would be hard to find a part of Goochland County that has not been touched in some way by Lawrence Nuckols. Except for nine months during the 1961 Berlin Crisis when he was stationed in Ft. Campbell, Ky., as part of the National Guard, he has lived and worked within a few miles of his birthplace on Ashland Road. And over the years, he has served as a leader in a number of the County’s business and civic organizations.  In 1955, when he was in the eighth grade, Nuckols got a job working at what is now the Centerville Exxon Station on Broad Street Road.  In 1960, a year after graduating and marrying his high school sweetheart, Anne, he bought the station. At the time it was the only service station in the area and had two bays. Nuckols expanded the station, adding state auto inspections and more bays, which he rented out. At one point during the 29 years he owned the business, he had 14 employees.

    Always a supporter of the high school’s work-study program, Nuckols included students among his employees. The work offered a great opportunity for them to hone their math skills. “Today, computerized cash registers tell you how much change to give back,” he says. “But back then, kids had to know how to count to make change.”

During the sixties, Nuckols recalls, he had a separate set of tanks where he sold Crown gas instead of Exxon. He called it Nuckol’s Mother Goose Regular and Mother Goose Hi-Test and sold it for about 6 cents less a gallon. He also remembers the mass confusion brought on by the gas shortages during the 1970s. Exxon allocated him a percent of what he had received the previous year, and he had to buy the rest on the open market. “Prices were crazy,” he says.

     Over the years, the station moved from full-service to self serve. Nuckols sold the station in 1989 but still works there part-time doing state inspections. He has dabbled in real estate and also raises beef cattle, at one time having 100-head.

     Anne and Lawrence are active members of St. Matthews Church. From 1971 to 1991, Nuckols served on the Goochland County Board of Supervisors. Prior to that, he was elected to serve as magistrate for eight years. He has also served with the Goochland County Volunteer Fire-Rescue Association and is a long-time member of the Goochland County Chamber of Commerce.

    As chairman of the board of the Bank of Goochland, Nuckols was instrumental in choosing its location at the corner of Broad and Manakin Road. He was one of the founders of the former Bank of the James and served on its board, as well as that of its successor, Commerce Bank. Although he has seen a lot of changes in the area over the decades, Nuckols believes that good planning helps make growth a positive for the county.

During their travels to various conventions, Nuckols and his wife Anne noticed that some of the prettiest areas they flew over were the golf courses. Instead of putting a residential development on the pastures surrounding their home, Anne convinced her husband to develop a golf course. Today they enjoy overlooking the rolling fairways of the Sycamore Creek Golf Course, one of two public courses in Goochland County. 

    When asked what achievement he is most proud of, Nuckols answers: his family. In April 2010, he and Anne will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. Anne’s family also has strong roots in Goochland County. Her grandfather owned the old Ellis’ Store at Broad and Manakin Road, as well as the land on which Sycamore Creek is located. The Nuckols have two daughters, Penny, a medical transcriptionist, and Sandi, a hair stylist. Both live on the Nuckols family place on Ashland Road and between them, have given Lawrence and Anne four grandsons. Two are now young men in their twenties, but the younger two are ages two and four.