Meet the Staff
The Foundation’s staff is (left to right) Doug Rabold, Bennett Tucker, Eric J. Grande, and Chris Reichel.
Douglas E. Rabold
Executive Director
Doug Rabold was raised on a crop and cattle farm in western Pennsylvania. He moved to Aiken in 1990 to work at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site, where he held positions in human resources, community outreach, and business development. In 1999 he was hired as Executive Director of Aiken Center for the Arts, and subsequently served on its Horseplay Committee. He later opened a company and for three years operated a fine art gallery and a communications consulting business. During this time, he founded and organized Art After Hours and Aiken After Hours, served as the first chairman of the new Aiken Arts Commission, and contributed to Easy Street magazine. After a year of working with the Hitchcock Woods Foundation on a consulting basis, Doug was hired in 2005 to serve as the Foundation’s first Executive Director. He also serves on the board of directors of the Greater Aiken Integrated Trails (GAIT) Foundation. Doug continues to serve in the Rotary Club of Aiken, including as chairman of the Membership Committee, and with the Greater Aiken Chamber of Commerce Equine Steering Committee, the City of Aiken Equine Advisory Committee, and the Aiken Center for the Arts Collections Management Committee. In the recent past, he served on the board of directors of both Leadership Aiken County and Helping Hands of Aiken. He is a graduate of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh with a degree in journalism.
W. Bennett Tucker
Woods Superintendent
Bennett Tucker grew up in Aiken and spent much of his youth exploring and enjoying the Hitchcock Woods. He volunteered with the Axe Club and enjoyed riding and showing horses at the Fulmer International Stables (now The Stable on the Woods). He worked with the Foundation’s former forester as a summer intern for three years while in high school and college, and volunteered to help with prescribed burns and the Aiken Horse Show. He joined the Foundation’s staff as Woods Superintendent in 2006. While in college, he became a volunteer firefighter with the Due West Fire Department and later joined Aiken Public Safety as a volunteer firefighter. Bennett has many first responder certifications, many structural and wildland firefighting certifications, and is a South Carolina certified prescribed fire manager. He has remained an active volunteer firefighter with Aiken Public Safety (winning Volunteer Firefighter of the Year in 2009) and serves on the board of directors of the Aiken Land Conservancy. Bennett graduated from Aiken Preparatory School and then from Christ School in Arden, North Carolina. He is a graduate of Erskine College in Due West, South Carolina, with a degree in business administration.
Eric J. Grande
Woods Technician
Eric Grande joined the Foundation staff as Woods Technician in February 2013. He is a 2012 graduate of the University of South Carolina Aiken, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology with a minor in geology. Eric’s educational background is well suited for the position, including courses in environmental earth science, ecology, botany, animal behavior, and conservation. He has a lifelong familiarity with Aiken and is an avid outdoorsman.
Christine M. Reichel
Administrator
Chris Reichel was raised on Long Island, New York. She served as a computer programmer and systems analyst for a Navy defense contractor in Virginia, and for a bank in Delaware. She and her husband moved to Aiken in 1990. She served with Aiken Junior Woman’s Club for ten years and was president in 1999 and 2000. Volunteer work with the organization led to her position with the Hitchcock Woods Foundation and she was hired as Administrator in 2001. The mother of three, she continues to provide volunteer services for Project Graduation, school organizations and her church. Chris graduated from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, with a degree in computer science.