It's WINDSday |January 14, 2026

Celebrating the Power of Wind, Clean Energy and a Green Environment

Vol. 2

The fifth-year president of Paul D. Camp (PDC) Community College has nothing against four-year schools.

After all, Dr. Corey McCray has a PhD from ODU among other degrees, but he knows many people want a job and a paycheck sooner in their lives and believes the trades, particularly in shipyard-rich Hampton Roads, offer the fastest path to both.

A Conway, South Carolina native, Corey was in the Navy (aviation boatswain mate on the USS Independence, among other assignments for seven years), wisely separating through their Troops to Teachers program. That landed him at Lakeland High in Suffolk, where he taught drafting and other engineering courses. “For the next fifteen, I ran the city’s Pruden Center for Industry and Technology,” while amassing the aforementioned diplomas, ideal prep to become Executive VP for Workforce at Tidewater Community College. A stint as associate vice chancellor of the state system preceded his hiring at PDC, which serves the citizens of Suffolk, Isle of Wight, Southampton and Franklin.

First at TCC and now at Camp (ironically, his president’s office is in the main campus on Kenyon Road, across the street from Lakeland High), McCray used his entrepreneurial aptitude to wrangle private sector dollars, (i.e. Huntington Ingalls, Sentara and others), to create state of the art maritime training centers, the newest in the former Farmer Joe’s supermarket on Carolina Road in Suffolk.

“It was an older building but had good bones. We raised $6 million for Phase One, opening this past fall and are now teaching welding, shipfitting, electrical and other high demand skills.”  

And it’s not just to teens out of high school. “The average age in our workforce solutions student body is 33,” says McCray. “They can come here and in a matter of weeks earn a certification that can land them a job at a local yard making nearly $30 an hour, and from there the sky’s the limit with no student loan debt.” Some stay longer and accrue more credentials, making them even more employable, especially in this region. “80% of our graduates stay here in the area, raising families, buying cars and homes.” Newport News Ship and the maritime industry are thrilled according to McCray. “We are going to send them 700 certified workers a year.”  

Dr. M. loves Camp but realizes that there is strength in numbers. “TCC, Virginia Peninsula and PDC have formed the Community College Workforce Cooperative to reduce duplication and better help employers,” he says. “For instance, we have the outside machinist program at Camp, but the inside one is at Peninsula in Hampton.” No wonder the Hampton Roads Workforce Council named McCray winner of its 2025 Innovation Award, and it wasn’t just for rehabbing Farmer Joe’s. “We also took advantage of the state’s lab school initiative to start the Isle Maritime Trades Academy in Smithfield and are graduating lots of nurses and other medical students from our allied health center in Franklin,” (in the retrofitted former Tidewater News building).

To say that Dr. Corey McCray, who lives in Suffolk with his family, is a mover and shaker is an understatement. “Camp Community College is powering the future of meaningful employment across Hampton Roads and Western Tidewater,” boasts his proud school on Linked In. Dr. McCray won’t say it, but it all starts at the top.

If you want a pancake combo or steamed shrimp today or tonight at Nautilus Restaurant (3208 Atlantic Avenue,) you’re out of luck. “We close after the tourist season,” says Photis Georgiou, “but we’re back in business for Virginia Beach Restaurant Week.”

Yes, from January 16-25, come in for a three-course meal featuring an appetizer, one of several seafood, steak or other Mediterranean-seasoned entrees plus dessert. In fact you can choose a different VB eatery every night, among them WINDSday favorites Murphy’s, 1608 Crafthouse, Bad Ass Coffee, Bobo’s, Waterman’s and Abbey Road. (Go to www.dininvb.com to see the entire list.)

“It just doesn’t pay for a place like ours that prides itself on fresh fish and seafood to be open in the winter, because there isn’t enough traffic,” says Photis, who does keep his kitchen crew on the payroll year-round because “we cater parties, funeral meals and other events, many involving our church, Annunciation on Granby Street.” 

Photis is one half of a father-son team that has been part of the culinary scene at the Beach for more than two decades. “I started Fish Bones on Atlantic at 12^th Street in 1993,” says Mike, a native of Cyprus who came to Hampton Roads in 1986.

“Photis was clearing tables for me when he was ten.” Fish Bones is now history (its last event was hosting Photis’ wedding reception in 2025), as is Neptune’s, another Georgiou family resort strip establishment.

That leaves Nautilus, which slowly reopens after Restaurant Week, first on weekends and then every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner following the Shamrock Marathon rush in March.

“I love having him here,” says Photis of Mike, who admits that he “loves to cook everything,” preparing meals just for friends and family in the off months, including four elaborate Cypriot Mezedes feasts (next one is 1/25). 

Mike says Virginia Beach, and other cities in the region, once seemed to have a Greek restaurant on every corner.

“There aren’t as many now,” notes dad, pointing to Pocahontas and North End Pizza as holdovers from an earlier time. But starting this weekend, Mike will be cooking for Restaurant Week guests at Nautilus. Be one. 

Having a big company like Baltimore-based Cordish own one of your major retail centers opens up great possibilities for tenants. That’s how Geno’s Steaks, a 60-year-old Philadelphia institution, got interested in Cordish’s Hampton Power Plant.

Last Thursday, Mayor Jimmy Gray and other leading lights in the city participated in the symbolic “first slicing” of one of Geno’s famous sandwiches. Outside, dozens of other free food lovers lined the sidewalk to receive one of a hundred subs.

With Lowe’s, BJ’s, Rosie’s and Bass Pro Shop as neighbors, Geno’s ought to do well on the Peninsula, perhaps drawing authentic Philly Cheesesteak and Hoagie fans from the southside, before and after the expanded HRBT is complete. This is the only Geno’s outside Pennsylvania, and so don’t expect a Beach or Chesapeake location anytime soon.

If your kids need an incentive to ride with you to the Power Plant (second Mercury Boulevard exit heading west), there’s also an arcade in the 6,000 square foot space. Open daily for lunch, dinner and late night, check the traffic cameras and come for the steaks, cheese fries and sodas. It’s worth the drive and the money. 

Onancock may be the mural capital of the Eastern Shore. This one in downtown traces the history of the arts in the 345-year-old town.

Others welcome you to Onancock, Native American for “foggy place,” home to just 1,200 but bustling many days with visitors thanks in part to its participation in Main Street Virginia, a national organization with participating business districts throughout the Commonwealth.

“We promote Onancock both to visitors and potential tenants who can fill empty storefronts,” says Karin Rush-Monroe, who moved here full time in 2013 for the outdoorsy and casual lifestyle and today is a lead volunteer in the Main Street program, whose efforts are paying dividends. 

Keith Andes, with years of big city interior design experience, relocated to the Shore from Chicago with his partner, a doctor at the nearby Riverside hospital.

“In July I opened Driftwood & Moss, with furniture, jewelry and art from around the world. We’re doing well.”

Pete Smith, whose family owns the 45-year-old Corner Bakery, popular with Onancock to Tangier Island ferry riders as well as locals, is happy to see more buyers for his doughnuts and pastries.

Javon Smith, a local accountant, sees the growth too. “Every year 350 members of my family return for a reunion. They love Onancock, just like I do.”

Hampton Roads PR pro Cindy Mackey bought a cottage here 17 years ago, then became a full-time resident in 2024. “There is a wonderful small town feel, but there is momentum too. More weekend guests, more investment, more energy.”

Interested in spending a weekend or your retirement in this Accomack County community, 50 miles north of the Bay Bridge Tunnel?

Visit www.experienceonancock.com, to learn why the town calls itself a “little slice of nowhere else.”

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