MOULTRIE, Ga. — C. Verlyn “Lucky” Brock started working in death care services when he was 17 years old. He’s now 74, running incumbent as the Colquitt County coroner.

Brock, a Cairo native, graduated from Cairo High School in 1963 but in the year prior, he started his career in death care services. 

As a teenager, it was probably the excitement of it that pulled him in, he said, but for 57 years he’s immersed in death and not one day did he regret it.

He said being there is his ministry — the best way to help people through hard times

“The greatest emergency or greatest tragedy in the face is the death of a loved one,” Brock said.

Brock has served more than 1,500 families in the span of his 11 years and four months — since 2008 — as Colquitt County coroner. 

He said it has never been a job for him as he’s had a passion for it all his life.

Brock came to Colquitt County in 1980 as a licensed funeral director and a habit of calling those he met on the streets “Lucky.” He freelanced, serving multiple funeral homes until 2008.

“The funeral homes had to encourage me to run for coroner several years ago and it only became a reality in ’08 when I decided to run the first time,” Brock said.

It’s been good, he said, and there’s nothing he sees needing to change come reelection.

“I’d just continue to serve the people,” he said. “That’s the only way I could put it. While I’m still in good health and able to do so, that’s the way I look at it.”

Between his passion for death care service, Brock found solace in running a sign business. He’d run it in between funeral jobs as a hobby.

“I was lettering signs with a brush between funerals, so that when we got busy in the funeral I’d lay the brush down and go get busy,” he said.

Brock closed his sign shop in 2018, finishing a 38-year run. He knew his job was to serve the people, so though it was nice to have a hobby, it was not the mission. 

“I consider myself a servant of the people. Always have,” he said. 

Brock said he didn’t have any personal stories to share in terms of speaking on past cases but noted that his time was an experience. The most important thing he remembers is that every case is different.

“You’ve got to treat each case as an individual case,” Brock said. “Go out there and run everybody by the book because some people just need a hug, other people more than that.”

And it’s hard on emotions too. As coroner, he’s found that more often than not the people whose deaths are investigated or families who need consoling are friends.

“When I get a call to a coroner case and I get there and find a friend laying face down, yeah, that hurts,” he said. “And then children — it just really tears my heart out to have to go and work a case where children are involved.”

Those are two of the toughest things he’s handled during his time. The good Lord has given him the mercy to stand up and keep going, he said. 

“Whatever you see goes through your eyes and imbeds in your brain. You do not have a delete switch,” Brock said. “When you see a gory situation, it’s in your memory banks from now on.”

And that’s why to him being Colquitt County coroner is a ministry more than a job.