Editor’s note: In honor of Black History Month, this is the first in a series of features highlighting the impact of individuals and organizations in the Upstate’s Black community. For more, visit greenvillejournal.com/black-history-month.
When Charles Brewer was growing up in the Judson Mill community, a future in the textile industry seemed a foregone conclusion.
His parents and everyone he knew worked hard, and he started hustling at odd jobs from an early age to earn his way and help the family make ends meet.
But learning the value of hard work and the virtue of a job well done are only part of the story of what propelled Brewer to the position of general manager and chief operating officer at Greenville’s historic Poinsett Club, where he has worked for 44 years.
The first Black person to hold the position, Brewer credits much of his success to mentors throughout his life who saw his potential and pushed him to reach beyond the familiar and try his hand at new challenges.
Motivating mentors
Brewer traces the origins of his path to his current position back to a crucial connection he made in elementary school.
Reflecting on his early education at Hollis Elementary — now Hollis Academy — Brewer said he found reading and spelling difficult and became the “class clown” as a way to compensate for that frustration.
As a result, he was often deemed disruptive. He and his desk were many times relegated to the hallway outside the classroom and on one such occasion school counselor Steve McMeekin stopped to speak with him.
McMeekin took an interest in Brewer and over the ensuing decades became one of Brewer’s chief champions and encouragers. Brewer was one of about five or six boys the counselor nurtured and helped see a broader world full of possibilities.
But McMeekin was building on bedrock already established by Brewer’s parents and other family members who taught him lessons about the value of hard work and self-sufficiency.
Brewer’s grandmother also taught him a principle that has guided him throughout his life: God’s greatest gift to a person is the ability to serve others.
“I’ve always taken that to heart,” he said. “My gift that God gave me is to serve people and to take care of people.”
Brewer began living that attitude at about the same time he discovered what would become a lifelong love of cooking when, as an 8-year-old, he began cooking to feed his siblings. At the same time, he also followed his parents’ example of working hard to help make ends meet and took odd jobs wherever he could find them.
That work ethic eventually led Brewer to take a pot-washing job at the Poinsett Club in 1981 when he turned 16. And with McMeekin’s encouragement to be the best at whatever job he found himself doing, Brewer began a journey wherein he did nearly every job at the Poinsett Club.
Steady climb
Over his years at the club, Brewer encountered other mentors who encouraged him to take on new challenges and use his gifts in new ways. From former General Manager John Dejong, whose hands-on leadership style set an example of how to build teamwork, to former General Manager Warren Arseneaux, who tapped Brewer to become a dining room manager, he learned the roles that have defined the club’s reputation for excellence.
That reputation is built on the caliber of the staff and their commitment to one another and the members, according to Tom Bates, past president of the Poinsett Club board of governors.
“No one exemplifies that more than Charles because Charles has done every job that has been here,” Bates said.
— Charles Brewer
Like many of the club staff, maître d’ Lillie Washington’s tenure spans decades. She said Brewer’s passion for taking care of the members exemplifies the level of service the staff seeks to provide and helps explain why the Poinsett Club is such a cherished Greenville institution.
According to member relations director Stacia Smith, for the 26 years she’s been a staff member, Brewer has “been the face of the Poinsett Club.”
“He’s been the person who has reached out, touched members, formed relationships,” she said. “He’s got a real servant’s heart.”
For those reasons and many others, Bates said Brewer was the logical choice to become general manager.
“He deserved it and he earned it,” Bates said.
The ‘Talented Mr. Brewer’
While cooking is one of Charles Brewer’s lifelong passions, he has many other talents and passions, including:
- Education — is a serving board member and played an important role in the development of Legacy Early College with founder and Poinsett Club member William Brown.
- Wine — has developed a passion for wines and sharing that passion with club members. He will lead a group on a wine tour of Italy later this year.
- Ice sculpture — learned the techniques and competed in Fall for Greenville competitions.
