Kevin Kuharic, Director of restoration, Oakland Cemetery

What I do: “I fix things that are broken,” said Kevin Kuharic of his job as director of restoration and landscapes at Atlanta’s historic Oakland Cemetery.

And lately, there’s a lot that’s broken.

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Karl Ritzler / Special

Kevin Kuharic is overseeing restoration of Oakland Cemetery to its condition before a tornado in March toppled trees and tombstones. ‘We’re now completing the projects and finding undetected … damage,’ he says.

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Kuharic and his crews are still cleaning up and repairing damage from the March tornado that hit downtown Atlanta, knocking over trees and damaging 258 monuments in the cemetery.

He called it “one of the biggest challenges of my career. The impact is everywhere.”

While he rarely climbs scaffolding to replace a toppled obelisk, Kuharic, 42, said he facilitates the work and manages the projects. But he comes from a hands-on background, he said.

He first volunteered at the cemetery in 1988 and for a time ran a business that provided landscaping services to the cemetery. He has held his current post for seven years. Kuharic actually works for the Historic Oakland Foundation, a private, nonprofit organization that restores, preserves, promotes and beautifies the city-owned cemetery.

Kuharic said he has had to learn to let others take over and turn his energies to directing and planning the work.

“It was difficult to make that change,” he said. “I have to facilitate the experience for the volunteers.”

Once the tornado damage is repaired, Kuharic said he will continue his usual duties of enhancing the property and its landscaping. He said that despite the storm, he could not get off track with his other projects.

Often, that means conserving the mature trees the cemetery is famous for, as well as new, replacement plantings.

He also deals with the man-made parts of the cemetery, restoring stained-glass windows in cemetery structures; repairing grave markers, monuments and walls; and upgrading the infrastructure, such as the watering system.

He pointed to a fountain near the cemetery headquarters. It was leaking and blocking one of the narrow lanes. The fix involved moving the fountain about six feet out of the way of traffic, carefully restoring the pond portion to its original configuration and installing a water-saving recirculating pump.

“We research historic preservation techniques and Oakland Cemetery so we can match back to the original,” he said.

Every project, he said — even removing a fallen tree — is subject to preservation guidelines and review. “We’re now completing the projects and finding undetected tornado damage. It’s like having two jobs.”

There was a 90-day freeze on the cleanup, he said. “Each root ball was inspected by archaeologists to make sure it had no artifacts,” Kuharic added. “When we do something, we have confidence we’re handling it in a sensitive and appropriate way.”

Cleaning up from the tornado was uncharted territory, he said. There was no handbook to consult on how to repair historic monuments or work with the engineers, architects, artists and crane operators.

“That handbook now exists,” Kuharic said. “We created it.”

And he’s been sharing what he’s learned with his counterparts across the country.

“I go home smarter every day,” he said.

With special events such as the cemetery’s Halloween observances looming, Kuharic is still picking up pieces of glass blown out of downtown skyscrapers. While it’s a challenge to get the cemetery ready by deadline, “There’s no point in fixing it if we’re not going to share it with the public,” he said. “We’re the behind-the-scenes folks, and we love it.”

What got me interested in this: “I give my parents credit,” Kuharic said. “They instilled in me an interest in history and gardening.”

When he was a child, he said, his family frequently toured historic sites, gardens, presidential homes and national parks.

They would also go to the local cemetery where his grandparents were buried to plant shrubs, sweep the graves and have a picnic. “It’s what we did,” he said.

Best part of my job: “I’m happiest when things are getting repaired,” Kuharic said. “Planning is not the glamorous part.”

Most challenging part: “It’s a challenge to access all the sites,” he said, pointing to a crane that was being used to raise an angel and column to the top of a monument. It was wedged next to a wall along a narrow lane.

What people don’t know about my job: “I’m going to be buried here,” Kuharic said. “I walk past my own grave. I can see it from my office window.”

What keeps me going: “Getting something right,” Kuharic said. While the tornado damage has given him insight into how some of the monuments are built — and a chance to make them sturdier — it also created a need for research to find photos showing how a monument should look or which way it should face.

“We’ll end up better than [we were] going into the storm,” he said.

Preparation needed for this job: “Perseverance and passion,” Kuharic said.

He said most people in jobs like his tend to have a liberal arts background but learned what they know on their properties. He said a background in historical preservation also is helpful.

Kuharic was an English literature major and French minor at Butler and Ball State universities in Indiana.

He has taken continuing education at the National Center for Preservation Technology and Testing in Natchitoches, La., and has worked with the National Park Service, the Atlanta Preservation Center and the Atlanta History Center.

In addition to his landscaping business, Kuharic also has managed hair salons.

- By Karl W. Ritzler, for ajcjobs. Got an interesting job that you love? E-mail your story to jobseditor@ajc.com.

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