GROSSMONT COLLEGE- Grossmont has numerous unique human beings who provide interest and variety to the campus, including locksmith Chris Weiss.
Weiss deals with anything on campus that has to do with doors or desks and issues keys to all of the faculty members, but he is much more than a locksmith.
“I have a bachelor’s degree in fine arts,” said Weiss. “I actually went to school here for arts and every class you can think of for arts here I took.”
He is also involved in the theatre arts scene as well and emcees some local shows.
“I am a voting member of the Comic-Con committee,” he said. “Most people don’t know that Comic-Con is non profit, so I run a room called the fulfillment room. If you go to a panel, some panels will give you a little ticket and if you take that ticket to me then I give you some of the ‘swag’ that the group is giving away.”
Weiss is also a big part of a Flight 93 benefit program to help the victims from that United Air Lines flight on which passengers fought September 11th terrorists for control of the aircraft before it crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
“There’s a buddy of mine who had a very close friend who was on that flight. His name is Craig Keeling and he puts it together and I run it. So far we’ve raised over $10,000. We do about two benefits every year. Because of that, we got to go to the site in Pennsylvania to see it inaugurated as a National Park,” said Weiss.
“I also got to go to the ten-year anniversary of 9/11 in New York. I got to meet all of the U.S. Presidents (in attendance that day) and it was an experience. We were there at the memorial site. I got to meet all of the family members of a girl who was killed that day and it was a life altering experience,” he said.
How does someone with so many interesting experiences and interests settle at Grossmont College? Well here is the answer.
“I was born in a little place called Cherry Hill, NJ. It’s technically a part of the Philadelphia county. My dad was from here and my mom was from there so we moved here when I was four and when I was 13 we moved back. When I was 17 we moved back here again and I’ve been here ever since. I’ve been at Grossmont since 1986 when I started here part time right out of high school. I started out in the carpenter shop, and then moved to the plumbing shop, and now I’m the locksmith,” said Weiss.
“Grossmont is a great place to be. Great benefits, great people and you can actually do other things like the music and stuff and I’ve actually got to meet a lot of people. It allows me to have fun,” said Weiss.
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Brauer is news editor of the GC Summit. He may be contacted at [email protected]
