VCU Police Custodian Raymond Johnson
On a rare break from work, Raymond Johnson sits relaxed, admiring the view of East Broad Street from the third floor of the Virginia Commonwealth University Police Department.
“I’ve always been good at cleaning,” he says through a crooked grin. “Especially in the military, you just had to be neat.”
In mid-March, Johnson, 85, was named as a finalist for the Cintas Custodian of the Year Award for his custodial work at VCU Police headquarters. Out of 2,200 applicants from across the country, he was one of 10 selected for a final round of public voting, which closed in mid-April.
Founded in 2014, the Cintas Custodian of the Year Award seeks to honor the dedication of custodians who create safe and clean working environments, often without public recognition.
“We’ve heard so many heartwarming stories about beloved custodians,” says Christiny Betsch, a spokesperson for Cintas. “We wanted to give them the recognition that they don’t always get.”
VCU Police Chief John Venuti, who nominated Johnson for the award, says Johnson’s determined work ethic and affable charm made him the perfect candidate.
“I mean, look around,” Venuti said in early April, gesturing to the pristine conference room. “He’s just all about every day doing his job, and doing it in a manner that is inspiring.”
For years, VCU Police was headquartered in a former bar on East Grace Street, a cramped space that didn’t accommodate the department’s size — there are 95 sworn officers, the largest campus police force in Virginia. Venuti, a former Richmond Police Department major who was named chief at VCU in 2010, relocated the department in 2016 to the former United Way headquarters on East Broad Street, a 33,000-square-foot building halfway between the academic and medical campuses. The newer digs gave the department “a much more professional type of atmosphere,” Venuti says, something that Johnson takes to heart.
“We do a lot of recruiting, we do a lot of community events,” Venuti says. “I think when people step in the building, it’s Mr. Johnson’s job to make sure it looks great. And he does a really, really good job of making sure that it looks great.”
Johnson at work at the VCU Police headquarters
It’s not just Johnson’s custodial expertise. He always comes to work in a pleasant mood and is extraordinarily polite, Venuti says, which rubs off on other members of the VCU Police force.
In 1956, at the age of 19, Johnson, a Richmond native, enlisted in the military and served in the U.S. Army, the Army Reserve and the National Guard. Since then, he has worked as a carpenter, a butcher and at a tractor manufacturing plant. He met his wife of 62 years while working at the butcher shop; she came in one day as a customer. They have four children.
In 1988, after an accident at the tractor plant caused Johnson to need reconstructive surgery in his arm, he began working in housekeeping. For the past five years, Johnson has worked at VCU, spending the last two at the police headquarters downtown.
Johnson says he has enjoyed each day at every job he has ever had.
“Well, that’s the thing with me as far as work,” he explains. “If I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna do it as well as I can. If it pleases me, I know it can please the customer.”
On May 12, Cintas announced the winner of the Custodian of the Year contest, which went to Lydell Henderson from Presidential Park Elementary School in Middletown, New York. While winning the national award would have been nice, Johnson says, he doesn’t do it for the accolades. He simply takes pride in his work.
Johnson arrives at work at 6:30 a.m. each day because he likes to make sure the bathrooms are cleaned and the trash is empty before the other employees arrive at 7:30. Although the majority of his work is done in the morning, Johnson stays until mid-afternoon to ensure that the trash stays emptied, the windowsills are dusted and doors are wiped clean of fingerprints in all 83 rooms at the campus headquarters. As he makes his afternoon rounds, he is usually greeted with beaming smiles, handshakes or high-fives.
Even at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson came into work each day and cleaned with extra precautions. As first responders, the department’s employees do not have the option to work from home, and cleaning during that time was even more important.
“I still came in and took care of things the same,” Johnson says. “I never stopped cleaning.”
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