The Wilfleys: A Family of ‘Water Nerds’ Mixes Business with Pleasure

Jay Wilfley holds his son, Bryan Wilfley. Jay spent 30 years at the small Beaumont-Cherry Valley Water District in California. Photo courtesy of the Wilfley family.

Growing up in Beaumont, Calif., then a relatively small town in the mountains, Bryan Wilfley didn’t expect to pursue a career in the water sector. But he also remembers shadowing his father, Jay Wilfley, who spent 30 years at the small Beaumont-Cherry Valley Water District working as an operator, foreman, superintendent, and self-taught engineer. Bryan eventually developed an appreciation for the field.

“I would go with him sometimes when he had to do pump runs on the weekends,” Bryan said. He recalls holding a flashlight for his father as he fixed leaks late at night and conducting his first chlorine residual test when he was just 9 years old. “I’m sure the number I got [on the test] wasn’t right, but in my 9-year-old mind I was an operator,” Bryan said.

Water-related education starts early as Jay spends the day teaching Bryan how to fish. Photo courtesy of the Wilfley family.

Bryan enjoyed the time he spent with his dad at work. The familial bond shared by the District’s 15 or so employees also made an impression on him. “They would do these picnics. Everybody came to them, and their families came, too. The people that worked there were friends outside of work as well,” he said.

When Bryan turned 15, the district’s general manager offered him a summer job performing routine maintenance. He jumped at the opportunity, working summers and occasional weekends throughout high school.

After graduation, Bryan approached the general manager to ask for a full-time job. “He agreed under one condition,” Bryan said. “I had to continue going to school.”

Bryan, at age 15, conducts routine maintenance for the Beaumont-Cherry Valley Water District on his first day of work for the district. Photo courtesy of the Wilfley family.

Years later, Bryan learned that the general manager had made a ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ with his father that bundled a job offer with the continuing education requirement. “My dad was worried that I would end up like him, staying in the same small town all my life, working for a small company and never reaching my full potential,” Bryan said.

Bryan discovered a higher purpose at work. “Being out there at 7 or 8 at night on a leak you’ve been working on all day, and that feeling of ‘I’m not going home until they have water’ became a point of pride,” he said. “People would be very thankful, and I started to see the bigger picture.”

As Bryan’s expertise in mapping, project management, drafting, and engineering grew, his supervisors scrambled to prevent him from having to report to his father as he advanced to avoid any appearance of nepotism. “I slowly forced him into retirement,” Bryan said. “But he didn’t mind. He was very proud.”

In 2011 at age 27, Bryan left his hometown when he took a staff engineering job at California Water Service Co. (Cal Water; San Jose). His father passed away a year later.

Since then, Bryan has done a little water sector recruitment.

Bryan, tank and pipeline infrastructure supervisor, and his wife Ari, water conservation geographic information system analyst, both work for California Water Service Co. (San Jose). Ari uses geographic information system analysis to develop efficient water usage plans. Photo courtesy of the Wilfley family.

“I talked my wife, Ariana, into applying for a job here,” Bryan said. Currently, Bryan serves as a tank and pipeline infrastructure supervisor, and Ariana works as a water conservation geographic information system analyst, both at Cal Water.

“There have been times where my wife and I will be with our friends, and they say, ‘Do you do anything else? What do you do for fun?’ And we say, ‘we go to work.’ We’re both big water nerds,” Bryan said.

Bryan’s work responsibilities recently have taken him on the road, where he has had opportunities to inspire other young people to consider water sector careers.

“I try to get students to understand that it’s not just a job, it’s a calling,” Bryan said. “I show them a picture of people in South Sudan where women walk miles to get water from a well. Then I show them a picture of people from East Porterville in the central valley of California – people in our own backyard who are doing the same thing.”

Bryan knows he is following in his father’s footsteps. “The work ethic and values my father instilled in me have carried me through my career,” he said. “I am where I am because of him, and I thank him for that every day.”

— Mary Bufe, WEF Highlights