Where Did Painter Dave Go?
Jonah Turner | Feb. 10, 2026
The front door of the Warren Wilson College (WWC) Paint Crew’s workspace in Swannanoa, N.C. (Vivian Bryan/Echo)
“Hey there, Paint Crew, I’m emailing y’all today to let y’all know that Dave Marshall, aka Painter Dave, has left the college and will not be your crew supervisor this Spring,” said an email sent by Warren Wilson College’s (WWC) Work Program Office to the Paint Crew in early January. By the time members of the crew received the email, Marshall’s official email had been deactivated, and the crew was under the new supervision of Doug Bradley, who also supervises WWC’s Construction Crew. The Paint Crew, in a state of pseudo-limbo, has taken initiative and stepped up to the challenges that have arisen.
Niko Schoessler, an eight-semester veteran of the crew, is one of the three student leaders of WWC’s Paint Crew.
“It's been a tough emotional transition, not having Dave [Marshall] around to be that figure and that presence in our lives, because everybody loved Dave,” Schoessler said. “That's the hardest part about not having him around, just not having Dave here.”
The college was quick to select a new supervisor for the crew.
Senior Finn Zwemer, a five-semester veteran of the crew, now interfaces with the crew in place of a typical supervisor.
“Our interim crew leader was supposed to be Doug [Bradley],” Zwemer said. “Doug is no longer there as of right now because he is sick.”
In the absence of Marshall and an interim supervisor, senior leaders of the crew have stepped up to meet steep work expectations.
“So, there's Niko [Schoessler], and she's in charge of the paint shop and categorizing everything in there. She's like the librarian of the paint shop, basically,” Zwemer said. “Xavier [Cantella] is the only one that knows how to do any work orders, so he's in charge of the work orders, and then I'm in charge of… everything else.”
Zwemer feels the pressure of expectation as much as a formal supervisor would, but was able to find a silver lining within the new operation forming at the paint shop.
“Not to be communist pilled, but this is low-key really fire,” Zwemer said. “We're owning [the] means of production. No one's in charge.”
Without any formal communication from Marshall himself, the crew was left drifting without their long-time leader.
“He never mentioned anything,” Zwemer said. “He messaged us all the day after Christmas, and he said, ‘I hope everyone's having a good holiday. Make sure you embarrass your family for me.’”
After this Google Chat message, Marshall vanished from WWC, with his WWC email deactivated on the same day.
“I frequently described him to my friends back home as my personal Danny DeVito,” Schoessler said. “That's just kind of how he was. He was just funny, and he was such a little character. You would just see him scoot around in the golf cart, always off bustling to some other job.”
People’s recognition of Marshall's signature golf cart is an example of his fame on campus.
“If he came across you on campus, saw you walking somewhere, he’d be like, ‘Where are you headed? You wanna lift?’” Schoessler said. “That was always so fun. One thing that he was fond of saying was, ‘If you accidentally hit someone, make sure you check the mirrors to see if you like them or not, and if you don't like them, back over them and finish the job.’ He had such a great sense of humor.”
Long-time members of the crew valued the friendship Marshall offered within the workplace environment.
“He's also a Scorpio; Scorpio King, November 6,” Zwemer said. “Yeah, he's a woke king. His desktop screensaver was one of those early 2010s memes with the white text, it's a picture, and it was a kid asking his dad, ‘Dad, can you help me with my science homework?’ and the dad says, ‘Honey, we're Republicans!’”
Marshall’s humor is not the only thing that students will miss this spring. Schoessler spoke on some of the difficulties when replacing a boss like Marshall.
“We didn't see him a lot– he would just pop in and out,” Schoessler said. “ I don't even know the scope of what his days looked like because he was so busy all the time. I don't know who we're going to be able to hire that's going to be able to take over all of that.”
With the departure of Marshall, the student leaders on the Paint Crew have described frustration with the circumstances. Xavier Cantella, a sixth-semester student on the crew, provided his opinion.
“I feel it is unfair what the higher-ups asked out of Dave,” Cantella said. “I just want to say that even though the Paint Crew lost our most important member, we are still working hard, and we are trying to finish the year off strong, and that we need patience from everyone.”
During the fall semester, Marshall was asked to take up Public Safety responsibilities– this included nighttime shifts, patrol and meant that Marshall would have had to spend even more time on campus than he already did; Zwemer paraphrased Marshall’s response:
“Dave was like, ‘No, girl. No. Why would I want to do that?’ He didn't do it,” Zwemer said. “He said, ‘I don't want to ruin my relationship with my students.’”
Students speculated that this pressure had something to do with Marshall’s swift departure.
“We lost a real one,” Zwemer said. “I've never had a boss that cared about me as a human being as much as he did... He just cared.”
Zwemer reports that Marshall is living his best life, comfortably at home.
“He deserves it,” Zwemer said. “He deserves to drink in his house and watch TV and fall asleep on the couch.”
Like with any departure, ripples of impact can be felt amongst the student body.
“He was such a staple of campus that, honestly, he was one of the biggest reasons why I have stuck around Wilson as fervently as I have,” Schoessler said. “I'm inviting him to graduation because I'm not gonna walk across the stage without knowing Dave's watching.”
The painters also recognized that Marshall was an advocate for art and the crew’s place in building community on campus.
“He wanted there to be murals all over campus,” Schoessler said. “He wanted to do a lot of chalkboard walls so that people would have the opportunity to express themselves publicly. Sort of like the Cowpie wall, it's just full of art, and full of doodles and little messages.”
To begin to repay all of what he gave to (and wanted to give) WWC’s campus, consider leaving a kind message for Dave Marshall on the Cowpie chalkboard.
“Dave to me was the first person to understand the way I like to learn,” Cantella said. “Dave: There is still a lot I needed to learn from you, and I know I will miss you, and so will everyone on our crew.”