Macon Magazine

82 maconmagazine.com | June/July 2024 L a r r y B r u m l e y PHOTO BY MATT ODOM | INTERVIEWED BY SIERRA STARK STEVENS and acting as university spokesperson—and marketing communications—managing and editing university periodicals and media releases, crisis communications, and media relations. One of those administrative responsibilities was managing the College Hill Corridor project, a student-led reimagination of the two-mile stretch between Mercer's campus and Downtown Macon. It sparked community mainstays like Second Sunday concerts and Magnolia Soap Box Derby and served as a blueprint for the Downtown Challenge initiative, which continued to revitalize the district. Brumley described that project as among the most rewarding in his career because "what began as an idea in a classroom "'I'm just a bureaucrat," said Larry Brumley, chief of staff and senior vice president for marketing communications at Mercer University. Yet, desk jockeying doesn't explain how a college administrator became an Emmy-winning rock-and-roll producer. H E R O E S A M O N G U S T hough a Texas native, Brumley claims Macon as home. "I've been singing Macon's praises for 33 years," he said, a er his first stint at Mercer University – 1991 to 1997. He returned to the Lone Star State to care for his father. But in 2006, a er years of missing Macon's unique soul and people, his colleague, Dr. William Underwood, was named Mercer's president. He asked Brumley to return to campus as his chief of staff. Brumley jumped at the chance to settle in the birthplace of Southern rock. Since 2006, he's le an indelible mark on this city. Among his most important projects has been overseeing the revitalization of Capricorn Studios – a nine-year, $4.7 million dollar project that turned the derelict property that once launched the careers Brumley at Mercer Music at Capricorn of Macon's music legends into a modern, state-of-the-art recording studio, music incubator, and event space responsible for some of 2023's top indie albums in the United States. Brumley also executive produced "A Night of Georgia Music" – a live performance recorded for TV, created with Macon natives Mike Mills of R.E.M. fame, Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell, and Mercer's McDuffie Center for Strings founder, the celebrated violinist Robert McDuffie – which received three Emmy nominations and an Emmy award. He also performs all the duties one might expect of a collegiate chief of staff—running the day-to-day operations of the office of the president, overseeing strategic initiatives,

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