Larry Quinn was 7 years old when he
first ran a buffer. Cleaning houses of God was a bit of a family business.
Quinn and his family attended St. John the Beloved Church in McLean and his dad
volunteered at the church. When Missionhurst Father Paul Cauwe left the parish
to start Holy Spirit Church in Annandale, he asked Quinn’s father to come
along. “My father was a government worker, but he took it on as a part time
job,” said Quinn. “So I was around here a lot.”
During the summers, Quinn’s mom would
drop him off at Holy Spirit to help the cleaning man his father hired. “That’s
how I learned how to clean buildings,” said Quinn. In the winter, his dad would
let him plow the snow in the parking lot while he made coffee inside. When his
dad plowed, he was demoted to shoveling duty.
At age 25, Quinn took over his father's
janitorial and property maintenance business. On-and-off since then, he and his
crew have cleaned and cared for Holy Spirit, St. Ambrose Church in Annandale, St.
Anthony of Padua Church in Falls Church, St. Bernadette Church in Springfield as
well as Protestant churches and office buildings. Fifteen years ago, Quinn sold
the business and began working as Holy Spirit’s facilities manager.
He describes his job as handling “anything
and everything.” His office attests to that diversity of activity — scattered
around the janitor’s closet-esque space are a computer and desk, piles of
paper, extension cords, yellow caution tape, bottles of cleaning fluid and
caulk.
During the school day, he and two other
maintenance workers mop up spills and fix what’s broken. They oversee the
school’s security measures. Quinn ensures the cleaning company and other
contractors satisfactorily complete their tasks. When he can do it safely
himself, he’ll see to the odd job, such as installing tiles or closets. He
keeps the school, church and rectory safe, spick and span.
“I really care for the building,” said the 65-year-old handyman. “As I tell everybody, my floors would stay clean if I didn’t have kids in here. But Mrs. (Maureen) Ashby, the principal, tells me that without the kids I wouldn’t be needed,” he said with a laugh.
Quinn has cleaned up a lot of messes in his day. He remembers one night in his 20s when vandals broke windows and sprayed fire extinguishers throughout the school and church. They closed the school that Friday, said Quinn, and he and his men spent all day and night cleaning the church for Saturday evening Mass. “That white powder is almost impossible to get up,” he said.
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ZOEY MARAIST | CATHOLIC HERALD
Another time, the director of religious
education called the pastor to see if they should cancel classes during a
snowstorm. Quinn already had cleared the parking lot, so when the priest looked
out the window, it seemed safe to him. “He didn’t look out to a side street to see
it was still 6 inches deep, and icy,” said Quinn. “Oh, (the religious education
director) was mad at me.”
During a summer camp science experiment,
one student caught his finger in a beaker. Quinn coaxed it out with a bit of
Palmolive soap. But Quinn didn’t divulge many other tales of what’s gone wrong
on his watch. “Kids are inventive. They might try it.” Suffice it to say, “it’s
never boring,” he said.
Appropriately, Quinn and his wife,
Cynthia, were married at Holy Spirit. They have two grown children: Patrick and
Tyler. He’s found some similarities between childcare and building maintenance
— both require a lot of attention and dedication. “The building is like your
kid — you know when something’s out of order,” he said.
During long holidays, Quinn likes to
stop by Holy Spirit to make sure everything’s running smoothly. Once, all the
ovens were left on. Another time, burst pipes unleashed rivulets of water into
the school hallway.
Due to his lengthy tenure, sometimes he sees
problems coming. “My father took me around as they were building (Holy Spirit),
and he showed me that as they were bricking up the building they’d cracked some
of the pipes,” said Quinn. “He said, ‘This building’s going to leak.’ And lo
and behold it did leak, and the company had to dig a trench all the way around
and put a sump pump in that room.”
Quinn believes his years of experience are
an asset to the parish priests who’d rather focus on their flock’s spiritual
needs than the plant’s physical ones. He knows the wires and pipes that lie
hidden beneath the drywall as well as the priests know the Mass.
Quinn’s institutional memory is valuable,
especially when new pastors arrive. It always takes them a few months to figure
everything out, including the presence of a small cemetery that predates the
church. “They’d come up and say, ‘Larry, is there a graveyard somewhere around
here? Why didn’t you tell me that?’ I’d say, ‘You never asked,’ ” Quinn said.
Cleaning different churches, including
the Baptist church near Holy Spirit, has allowed Quinn to witness other faiths,
but he’s glad he remained a Catholic. “I could've easily changed but this one
always seemed to be right. I always settled back here,” he said. “I like the
Catholic community.”
By all accounts, it seems the community
at Holy Spirit will miss him when he and his wife move to Winchester next year.
In honor of his retirement, a large poster of his head is displayed in the copy
room. As he walks down the school hallway, one teacher said to her students,
“What should we ask for today, guys?”
“A pool,” the kids implore as Quinn
passes through. Maybe they’ll have better luck with the new guy.