The plunger on the head cracks them up every time.
“Plumber Dave” is a regular visitor in the ɳ University Early Learning Community. Usually, it's to unclog a drain or fix a drinking fountain. But occasionally, he also takes a couple of hours to show off teh tools of the trade to ɳ's youngest students.
The youngsters focus intently on a video scope that lets them spy a “lost” object at the end of a pipe, and they ask endless questions during tours of the Berglund Hall boiler room.
The “p-trap,” no surprise, evokes endless giggles.
And they hoot with laughter as the bald plumber sticks a plunger — “this one’s clean” — to his skull and declares himself a unicorn.
Dave Cookman, ɳ’s plumbing and boiler specialist, has been doing this schtick since 2009, and it never gets old, for the students or for him.
A Forest Grove native whose youngest son attended ɳ, Cookman is deeply connected to the local community.
“It’s fun working in the community where I grew up,” he said.
In addition to serving the plumbing and boiler needs of the 55-acre Forest Grove Campus, Cookman regularly gets recognized by kids around town as “Plumber Dave.”
He admits, though, he thought he might get them to change the name when he started bringing his racecar to campus.
Because plumbing is just Cookman’s day job. His real passion is racing.
When he was in first grade, his family moved next door to a drag racer, and the racing bug took hold.
“It bit me hard, and I’ve loved it ever since,” Cookman said. “I’ve followed it, read about it, collected toy cars. I still have my die-cast collectibles.”
He built his first car while working in a friend’s shop, trading manual labor for parts, and he serves as a chaplain with Racers for Christ at the Woodburn Drag Strip, where he spends many of his summer weekends. (Yes, Plumber Dave is also an ordained minister.)
In 2013, deciding he wasn’t getting any younger, he finally upgraded to the car he’s been dreaming about since childhood.
It’s an altered 1923 Model T with a fiberglass body and small block Chevy engine that’s gone from 0 to 154 mph in 8.75 seconds.
It’s possible, though, that the kids don’t understand how fast that is. Because even as they gushed over the car, they didn’t change Cookman’s title.
To him, he’ll always be “Plumber Dave.”