Dennis Saylor: 'Beyond generous' and 'beyond giving' in community service

Jul. 17—"Tech support" and "life-sized Tonka toys" have been major factors in Dennis Saylor's career, with the West Virginia native making a career move to Aiken in 1991 and earning a reputation for community service in a variety of roles.

He earns his living mostly in Williston, working for Crane Payment Innovations (formerly Dixie-Narco), and over his Aiken decades, has become known as a leader of the Aiken Sertoma Club, local Republican politics and the Aiken County Parks and Recreation Commission.

He is the Aiken Sertoma Club's current president, having stepped into that role July 1, and is extraordinarily dependable, in the assessment of longtime club member Don Bartelmay, who nominated Saylor (successfully) for the club's "Sertoman of the Year" award in 2021.

"He was one of these guys that did everything, but nobody ever thought anything of it because he did it so quietly," Bartelmay said. "He steps up and gets it done, but he's not out there."

His role in local parks and recreation ran from 2005 to 2021, with his appointment to the county commission, including 12 years as the group's chairman.

"Dennis is very supportive of parks throughout the entire county — not just his district," said Mark van der Linden, director of Aiken County Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department. "He wanted to provide opportunities for citizens throughout the entire county and was very involved in the planning part of lots of projects over the years."

Van der Linden cited the redevelopment of Langley Pond as a prime example, noting such elements as the new dam, stump removal and the new playground. "Everything you see at Langley Pond today, Dennis had a footprint on," van der Linden said.

"As chairman, he led the meetings and provided a lot of input in everything we were doing as a department. Mr. Saylor always showed up for events for any type of project we had, in a show of support to our vision."

There is no college or university degree in Saylor's background. Uncle Sam, instead, played a major role in boosting him toward success, starting in Saylor's teenage years.

"I did not 'apply myself,' as some teachers said, during school, so college was really not an option, so as soon as I graduated, I signed up to the Air National Guard, which had a base in my hometown, and it wasn't really my idea," he recalled.

"I came home from school one day and the recruiter was sitting at the dining-room table. My grandparents raised me, so my grandmother knew the recruiter, so she had invited him to meet me after school one day, so ... I went into the Air National Guard right out of high school and continued with them for 11 years."

He was trained to be a construction equipment operator — a happy arrangement for Saylor, as he wound up working with bulldozers and cranes. "I tell people I was trained by the military to play with life-sized Tonka toys. I thought it was fun — dirty, but fun."

His Air National Guard years ran from 1976 to 1987 (with a two-week stint in Germany as a welcome part of the package), and he got on board with Dixie-Narco in 1978, starting a work relationship that still exists, although the company shifted its focus from West Virginia to South Carolina and has changed ownership several times. Such names as Magic Chef, Maytag and Whirlpool came and went.

"My official title is 'inside tech support team lead,'" he said. "I produce training videos. I create any of our technical documentation ... I do product content development."

While videos play a major role in Saylor's work life, it was theater that led to one of the biggest moments in his life. He and his wife, Robin, first met while taking part in community theater in Martinsburg, West Virginia. "We became the backstage romance during one of the shows, and hit it off and decided to go on with the relationship, dated for a little over three years, and then we got married, got two kids and lived happily ever after."

The lady of the house, he said, "is the finance department at South Aiken Baptist Christian School," where she has been on board for 25 years, dating back to the school's creation.

Theater brought the couple together, and the movie industry also provided a colorful moment in Saylor's personal history. He was chosen to be an extra in "Sweet Dreams," a 1985 biographical movie about country superstar Patsy Cline, with Jessica Lange in the title role (for which she was nominated for an Academy Award as best actress) and Ed Harris (a four-time Oscar nominee) as her co-star.

"He and I pass each other at the bus station," Saylor said, recalling his moment on film. He noted that the film's decision-makers apparently chose Martinsburg (Saylor's hometown) because the town's general appearance was well-suited to represent the 1950s and 1960s in the area where Cline grew up (around Winchester, Virginia, a few miles from both Maryland and West Virginia).

"I had that interest because I was heavily involved in the community theater and was doing almost all the shows that they were producing up there at the time," he said.

The movie moment also brought one of Saylor's most prominent features into consideration. "In that time frame, which I think was the 1950s, men didn't have mustaches. I've always had a mustache, once it started growing in, obviously, and I went to casting, they were looking at me and ... asking about the mustache, and I'm like, 'Well, I'd really prefer to keep it if I could,' and I had a couple of people kind of staring at me and looking and said, 'Well, you've got everything else looking for right for the character. You can keep the mustache,' so I got to keep the mustache, which made Robin happy. She's more attracted to it than I am."

Another form of drama (and occasional entertainment) also captured Saylor's attention over the years. He was chairman of the Aiken County Republican Party from 2008 to 2013, which involved traveling to Columbia for monthly meetings. "I was executive committeeman prior to that, and moved up to chairman when there was a resignation."

Among the highlights were the opportunities to meet most of the candidates pursuing a GOP presidential nomination. The overall experience included "a lot of good memories," he said.

"It was one of the most fulfilling things I've ever done, but ... it's intense, and after five years, I started getting a little burned out and decided to give it up and let someone else, with some new enthusiasm, move into the spot," he recalled, acknowledging that he might consider the possibility of a similar role in the years ahead.

"As my wife puts it, it was a full-time job with volunteer pay," he said, acknowledging that the challenge of holding down two full-time jobs was a tremendous challenge. "I met a lot of good people."

Clayton Clarkson, a member of the Aiken Planning Commission, puts the Saylors — Dennis and Robin alike — in that same category. He recalled his own time as a newcomer, arriving to begin studies at USC Aiken.

"They acted almost like my parents here in Aiken ... I didn't know anyone. They helped introduce me to almost my entire social circle in Aiken," Clarkson said.

He also provided some adjectives in an effort to describe the man of the house. "He is beyond generous. He is beyond giving. He is so welcoming and so caring in everything that he does for the community at large, and also for an 18-year-old who didn't know a soul in the community."