Jonathan Hale Merritt
General Manager · Since 2009
Came up through the dining rooms of The Greenbrier; answers his own telephone; writes every letter of reciprocal introduction himself, in a hand the post office has learned to read.
Our People
Known by name.
One hundred nine staff, a Board of nine governors, and a standing rule: the newest employee learns the members' names before the members are ever asked to learn theirs.
The Board of Governors
Nine members, elected for three years, answerable to the charter
The Board meets the first Tuesday of each month in the Library, as it has since 1914, and its minutes — every word since the founding — are bound and shelved behind the glass. Governors serve without compensation and, by custom, without their names appearing on anything but this page.
| Governor | Office | Committee | Member Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| Margaret Cabell Ashford | President | Grounds & Trust | 1988 |
| H. Whitfield "Whit" Grayson IV | Vice President | House | 1996 |
| Dr. Priya Nandakumar | Secretary | Membership | 2007 |
| Robert E. L. Tompkins | Treasurer | Finance | 1993 |
| Anne-Marie Delacroix | Governor | Entertainments | 2001 |
| Col. James R. Featherstone, Ret. | Governor | Golf | 1982 |
| Lucia Fernandez Whitaker | Governor | Racquets & Pool | 2011 |
| Thomas B. Okonkwo | Governor | Green | 2014 |
| E. Brooks Carrington | Governor | Long Range | 2004 |
The Department Heads
The keepers of the day
The average tenure of the six below is sixteen years. It is not a coincidence; the club pays at the top of its field and asks, in return, that no member ever wait.
Katherine "Kit" Aldercroft, PGA
Director of Golf · Since 2013
The first woman to hold the post. Plays to a one; teaches the winter school; wrote the hole-by-hole notes on the golf page and stands behind every one of them.
William "Billy" Thacher, PGA
Head Professional · Since 2016
Holds the course record of 63, set in the 2019 Member–Pro with his father on the bag. Runs the caddie yard and the scholarship fund it feeds.
Aurelio Fontaine
Executive Chef · Since 2007
Trained in Lyon, seasoned in Charleston, and entirely converted to the Virginia larder. Has declined three hotel offers the membership knows of; the crab soup receipt is in the office safe.
Naomi Ellsworth
Director, Stillhouse Spa · Since 2009
Restored the springhouse and then built its program. Keeps the treatment files by hand; the cool room is her doing and her favorite room in Albemarle County.
Caroline Ashe Prescott
Director of Membership · Since 2012
The first voice a prospective member hears and, by long repute, the best judge of fit the club has ever had. Reads every inquiry herself; answers within two business days, in full sentences.
| Name | Post | Since |
|---|---|---|
| Priya Ramanathan | Director of Racquets — the Vance Cup's keeper and the Friday platform league's iron hand | 2011 |
| Thomas Okafor | Wine Director — the cellar's 8,400 bottles and the Cellar Table's monthly book | 2015 |
| Angus Doyle | Superintendent of Grounds — fourth generation in the trade; reads the course like weather | 2018 |
| Mrs. Anne-Marie Delacroix | Director of Events — one master book, one event at a time, always | 2001 |
| Mr. Raymond Toombs | Night Porter — thirty-one years; the last voice of the evening and the first of the morning | 1995 |
The Keeping of the Staff
The club keeps its people, and it shows
Full-time staff are carried through the winter at full wage — a policy set in 1933 and never suspended, including 2020. The caddie scholarship fund, fed by the September scramble and the membership's quiet additions, has put forty-one caddies through college since 1988; three have come back to work here.
Service pins are struck at ten years. There are presently thirty-eight worn in the house.
