Communications Director Brent Walker, ALMBS Class of 1981, Returns to Jackson’s Mill with Message on the Real Work of Governing
WVU Jackson’s Mill — Brent Walker, Communications Director for the West Virginia Department of Transportation and a 1981 alumnus of the American Legion Mountaineer Boys State (ALMBS) program, returned to Jackson’s Mill on Tuesday morning to deliver the breakfast keynote address to this year’s Citizens — including the newly elected ALMBS Governor and cabinet.
Walker, who himself served as ALMBS Governor in 1981, opened his address by bringing greetings on behalf of West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey, whose communications office he also currently serves on a part-time basis.
“He knows what happens inside these walls. He knows that this program changes lives,” Walker told Citizens, relaying the Governor’s congratulations to every Citizen who stepped up to run for office. “It takes guts. You have to step outside of your comfort zone.”
Winning Is the Clean Part
Walker delivered a direct message to ALMBS’s newly elected leadership, calling the moment of victory only the beginning of the real work.
“Winning the office is really just the clean part,” Walker said. “Now you actually have to govern.”
To illustrate what governing actually demands, Walker walked Citizens through one of West Virginia’s most unglamorous and consequential challenges: the state’s roads. The West Virginia Division of Highways maintains 38,000 miles of road and more than 7,000 bridges — the sixth-largest state-maintained highway system in America — funded almost entirely through the state road fund and the gas tax, with no money drawn from the general budget.
The paradox, Walker noted, is that as vehicles become more fuel-efficient, the gas tax revenue that pays for those same roads continues to shrink — even as inflation drives up the cost of asphalt, steel, and skilled labor. West Virginia’s mountainous geography compounds the challenge: every freeze-thaw cycle shatters asphalt and triggers slips and slides that can take entire lanes of road with them.
Against that backdrop, Walker shared that West Virginia is currently undergoing what he described as a record-breaking economic comeback — with $12.5 billion in projected investment and approximately 12,000 new jobs on the horizon. “There is a future in West Virginia,” he told Citizens.
The Brutal Science of Choosing
Walker offered Citizens a definition of leadership grounded in real-world tradeoffs. “Every dollar you spend patching a pothole is a dollar you can’t spend on health care, public schools, broadband, or clean water,” he said. “Governing is not the art of making everyone happy. It is the brutal science of choosing between competing necessities.”
He also offered Citizens a definition of transparency that pushed beyond conventional usage. “Transparency is not being open and honest about what we want you to know,” Walker said. “Transparency is being open and honest with the facts and information.”
45 Years Later, Still Driven by Jackson’s Mill
Walker closed his address by reflecting on his own ALMBS experience 45 years ago — and how the friendships, habits, and lessons from a single week at Jackson’s Mill had shaped a long career in communications.
“Decades down the road when your hair is gray and you’re running businesses, leading communities, or sitting in the actual West Virginia legislature, the memory of Jackson’s Mill will still be driving you,” Walker said. “It does me.”
He left Citizens with a charge that drew directly from the day’s case study: “Don’t look for the easy answers this week, because easy answers don’t build bridges. They don’t pave roads. Go build a great state this week so that you can lead a greater one tomorrow.”
ALMBS thanks Brent Walker — and, by extension, Governor Patrick Morrisey and the West Virginia Department of Transportation — for sharing the perspective of a Boys State alumnus who turned a week at Jackson’s Mill into a lifetime of public service.
