'Plumber Dave' By Day

The plunger on the head cracks them up every time.

“Plumber Dave” made his annual visit to the Pacific University Early Learning Community in December, spending a half-day showing off the tools of his trade to preschool through first-grade students.

The youngsters focused intently on a video scope that let them spy a “lost” object at the end of a pipe, and they asked endless questions as he took them on a field trip into the Berglund Hall boiler room.

The “p-trap,” no surprise, sent them into giggles.

And they hooted with laughter as the bald plumber stuck a plunger — “this one’s clean” — to his skull and declared himself a unicorn.

Dave Cookman, Pacific’s plumbing and boiler specialist, has been doing this schtick for the past six years, and it never gets old, for the students or for him.

A Forest Grove native whose youngest son is a sophomore at Pacific, 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 also makes appearances in town parades, recently participated in a photo project by Pacific art students, and regularly gets recognized by kids around town as “Plumber Dave.”

He admits, though, he thought he might get them to change the name last spring, when he brought 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 for the last several years, he’s served 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.)

Two years ago, Cookman decided he wasn’t getting any younger and 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.”