Bob Spaulding is the bus driver for the men’s soccer and hockey teams and is among the most hardworking people out there.
“You look out the window at 7 a.m., and he’s cleaning the bus, wiping down the windows,” Alex Elias ’08, the men’s soccer head coach, said. “We can barely keep our locker room clean.”
Spaulding grumbled about his dirty bus a few times during the interview. “That's why I hate this time of year, because that bus was clean when I left the garage,” he said. “Now it looks like I've been out four-wheeling with it.” I told him it looked clean to me, but he wasn’t convinced.
Spaulding boasts a big smile and a contagious energy. He also loves talking with people, a trait he inherited from his dad and a vital skill when driving others in a 40-foot bus almost every day.
“I just love people. I love taking the people to where they want to go. I love people’s stories,” he said.
Spaulding was born and raised in Fairhaven. In 1983, the summer after graduating high school, he met his future wife at age 17. They celebrate their 40th anniversary this year.
“She’s a golden girl to have kept me this long,” Spaulding said, smiling widely. They have three kids, one of whom recently moved next door.
Four years ago, he started driving the men’s soccer team, and this year, the men’s hockey team. By now, he’s attuned to the teams’ habits, such as where they like to eat: the soccer team at Chipotle and the hockey players at Noel’s in Rutland.
The Vermont native says his flexibility and knack for remembering details are why Middlebury teams keep requesting him. Nevertheless, Spaulding still insists on one rule: “A fed bus driver is a happy bus driver.” Whenever the soccer team stops at a grocery store, Elias treats his driver to whatever he wants.
While free food is a sweet deal, Spaulding — true to his curious nature — appreciates the connections with the players even more. “A lot of the guys, after two or three trips — and I didn’t ask for this — but they call me by my name. I’m not used to that,” he said. “A lot of them want to hear your story, where you come from, and what you got for family, you know?”
The players appreciate Spaulding, too. “He’s always telling us good luck. He comes to our games, we give him gear. We appreciate Bob, he’s a member of our team,” soccer midfielder Dylan Payne ’28.5 said.
“He’s a legend,” defender Charlie Johnson ’28 added.
However, Spaulding didn’t begin his career driving buses. During college, he would come home on weekends and head to the bar. His father, Jim, frustrated that his son was such a big partier, found him a job taking trash to the dump for Aubuchon Hardware. It wasn’t long before the pizza shop nearby needed someone too, and soon enough Spaulding found enough customers for his own trash business.
A few years later, he started working for Premier Coach. He hauled trash from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. before driving the bus from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m, seven days a week. He sold the trash business, but still drives buses on the weekends and oil tankers during the week. Despite the long work hours, Spaulding carves out time to volunteer for the town select board and travel in his camper to watch dirt races around the country.
For Spaulding, it's a priority to help others in his time off. Every year, he and his daughter volunteer for a week with the Peace Corps in Honduras. He builds houses with the construction team, while she distributes supplies to the medical team.
“When I think I have a bad day up here, it's [like] I'm living on top of the earth compared to those guys,” Spaulding said, explaining how people were living in fish shanties with dirt floors and tin roofs. “They don't have any clean water or nothing.”
The trip has been a tradition since his daughter’s high school days. Since then, he’s remained particularly close to one family, helping them build tile floors and a bathroom out back. In return for all his hard work, they’ve nicknamed Spaulding “El Toro,” or the bull. Whenever he goes down there now, he stuffs his pockets full of money for the family.“It’s my drug to help others,” Spaulding said.
Now 60 years old, Spaulding has worked at a breakneck pace for many years. When asked how much longer he’ll drive buses, his answer was almost predictable: “As long as I can physically do it.”
