Jeff Glenn

I grew up in Baltimore, MD and was first exposed to Roanoke on my way to Virginia Tech. I had a blast enjoying outdoor activities in the Blue Ridge area while earning my undergraduate degree in civil engineering. What I noticed first was the glow of lights you can see from I-81 while driving back to Tech late at night but I didn’t really venture into Roanoke until returning to the region five years after graduating.

After college I moved out west to fulfill my dream of working with children in therapeutic wilderness programs and living the ski town life in Utah and Colorado. Lucky for me, while living in Aspen a friend from Tech encouraged me to meet another Virginia Tech Civil Engineering graduate who was living in Denver at the time. We hit it off, moved to Vail and were engaged.

While in Vail, Sarah and I planned our wedding and honeymoon and decided there was no better time to quit our jobs, sell what worldly possessions we had, and travel the US to find a place to settle down. We were married in Virginia, to make it easy for our families, and then spent the next five months driving from coast to coast checking out all the cool towns. We visited the likes of Burlington, Bend, Boise, Boulder, Seattle, Portland, and many more. Along the way we honed in on what we wanted. We wanted a small city to allow for cultural amenities and professional career options. We wanted a region surrounded by National Forest land, affordable housing and good mountain biking. When we drove into downtown Roanoke in the summer of 2001 we found all that and a vibrant downtown teeming with pedestrians shopping on the open air market. We found home.

We moved to Roanoke that fall, reconnected with our friends from college and proceeded to import my brother, two other classmates from Tech who had left the region and Sarah’s parents. In Roanoke we’ve found great friends, great jobs and great recreation.

I highly recommend Roanoke as a place to call home!

• Jeff’s Career: Southwest Virginia General Manager, SyCom Technologies
• Jeff’s Hometown: Baltimore, MD