For 33 years the lone trailer at the center of Eugene Pioneer Cemetery has been the home and workplace of George Dull, the cemetery’s groundskeeper. “The only thing I need is a bed, heat and a bathroom,” Dull said. “I’ve got people dying to be my neighbors anyhow.”
Dull keeps his equipment in a disorganized shed attached to the trailer. Tools and empty outlines where tools once belonged line the walls. Two mowers make the place smell of motor oil and last spring’s grass clippings. There is hardly enough space on the floor to set out two folding chairs. Beneath a cardboard box, a gravestone lies flat on the ground. “Lloyd Merle Johnson, Motorcycle Mechanic,” the stone reads.
During the winter, groundskeeper work slows. The grass doesn’t need mowing, and the late-night college partiers who leave trash on the grounds seem discouraged by the cold. In the winter months, Dull spends his time clearing tree debris from graves and watching for damage to the sites.
The 68-year-old groundskeeper doesn’t have problems with the students, and he said the university is a “good neighbor.” Dull has never had to confront rowdy students, and in any case that’s not his job. “I can’t arrest them or nothing,” Dull said. “It wouldn’t take much for them to kick my ass.”
His other neighbors don’t seem to bother him either. He doesn’t believe in ghosts, but he hasn’t written off the idea altogether. “If there are ghosts then I hope they’re friendly,” Dull said. In 30 years he’s never had an encounter with the other residents of Pioneer Cemetery. “I guess I get along with them real well,” he said.
On a walk through the cemetery, Dull spoke excitedly about new signage. He pointed out specific trees prone to dropping their branches and remarked how the standing stones are often fragile. He speaks of the cemetery’s 16.5 acres with pride for his hard work, and on a sunny January day it’s easy to see why. Thanks in part to Dull, the cemetery provides a quiet stillness separate from the noise of campus.
Dull isn’t alone in his pride for the cemetery. Dorothy Brandner, a member of the Eugene Pioneer Cemetery Association’s board, said her work with the cemetery was “like being a mother hen with some 4300 chicks.” She has personally traced the death records of many of the cemetery’s inhabitants to piece together just who lies at rest beneath some of the most unrecognizable stones.
Brandner spoke of a meeting the board held as Dull came up on 30 years of employment. “We were trying to decide how to honor his good work for us,” Brandner said. “We decided to give him his own burial plot.”
“I’m right here,” Dull said, pointing to an unmarked rectangle of earth facing McArthur Court. He then pointed to another empty plot nearby. “He’s still alive, but that’s where they’re gonna bury Rich Brooks. He was an old Ducks Football coach,” Dull said. Dull isn’t much into sports, but ever the good neighbor he said, “I guess I better study up on my football.”
