Boyer ’08 and Boyer ’11: “Continue the Relationships”

Like many VMI alumni, Dawson Boyer ’08 and Caleb Boyer ’11 found their way to post through the influence of an alumnus—in their case, Bill Dawson ’51, their maternal grandfather. And like generations of alumni before them, the Boyer brothers have taken the lessons they learned at VMI, chiefly those about honesty, integrity, and a commitment to helping others, to build their business, Providence Hill Real Estate.

It’s not easy to break into a highly competitive real estate market, and Providence Hill is at the forefront of such a market in Richmond, Virginia. In just 5 short years, though, the firm has achieved notable recognition, having been voted the best real estate firm in Richmond in the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s “Best of” competition 2 years in a row. Providence Hill has also been recognized by Richmond BizSense as a 2025 Top 25 Fastest Growing Business in Central Virginia.

What’s more, Providence Hill has experienced exponential growth since its inception, going from seven agents in 2021 to more than 70 today. Of those agents, seven are VMI alumni: In addition to the Boyer brothers, alumni agents working for Providence Hill are Brandon Gary ’12, Whit Kern ’14, Carson Motley ’19, Fielding Quarles ’20, and Stone Snyder ’23.

Quiet, steady work through thick and thin is what’s propelled their success, the brothers assert. “What a lot of alumni would say is that you take one day at a time and just learn to embrace the time in the valley,” Caleb commented. “Because even though it’s long, the mountaintops make it all worth it.”

The Rat Line, of course, taught the brothers much about the valleys in life—and Breakout taught them about the importance of relationships. “You just look at each other in a different way, and you’re so grateful you’ve had people by your side,” Caleb stated. “That translates to the next stage of life and growing your profession, especially building a business in residential real estate.”

Residential real estate may seem like it’s about houses and lots—but Dawson and Caleb would be the first to tell you that it’s truly about people. “We want to build a situation, a relationship with our clients, where they trust us, and they feel like they can call us 6 months or 6 years after [the transaction] closed,” said Dawson. “I think that’s like the leadership aspect of taking care of your rats or whoever’s underneath your care as you go through VMI.”

The business of buying and selling homes, of course, is dependent on a number of factors outside the control of any one individual—and among those factors are interest rates, the number of homes on the market, and the personal preferences of buyers. Thankfully, the brothers say VMI helped them learn to adapt to evolving circumstances and let go of things outside their control.

“VMI—especially like the Rat Line, there are so many rumors like, oh, there’s going to be a sweat party tomorrow at 5 a.m., so it’s like, are you going to go to sleep? Are you going to lie in bed all night, worried about it, not going to sleep? And it was just obviously so many other aspects of VMI through your entire cadetship, so, I think for me, it’s really about controlling the controllables,” Dawson noted.

Caleb concurred, saying, “VMI equips you to deal with disappointment really well. You have to have that mindset of no matter how bad things get or how different things are than what we expected them to be, there’s always something positive we can be doing. We can control ourselves even if we can’t control the environment.”

For Dawson in particular, graduating from VMI with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history during a recession in 2008 was a daunting experience. Soon, though, his VMI connections had opened a door. Thanks to the help of Bruce R. Hazelgrove III ’83, whose son, Bruce R. Hazelgrove IV ’11, was Dawson’s rat, Dawson found employment at New Market Corp., which is owned by the Gottwald family, many of whom have attended VMI over the years.

Dawson describes his year and a half at New Market as “a great experience,” but he’d been thinking about real estate ever since his 1st Class year at VMI, and in 2010, with the housing market still recovering, he took the plunge—again with the help of the VMI family, as he first went to work for Long & Foster, a firm begun by the late P. Wesley Foster Jr. ’56.

Helping others, Dawson noted, was central to what drew him to real estate. “I think the appeal was you get to help people achieve a really big life goal in home ownership,” he stated.

Caleb, meanwhile, wasn’t initially drawn to real estate—but he was drawn to a related field, residential construction. He graduated from VMI with a Bachelor of Arts degree in international studies in 2011 and took a position with a state senator before moving on to help run the family business, Boyer’s Ice Cream and Coffee. Time spent in construction followed, but after a while, he decided to change careers—and it just so happened that there was an opening to work with Dawson.

Adding VMI alums to the brokerage has been a joy. Many of Providence Hill’s alumni employees are involved with the VMI Club of Richmond, so the alumni bond encompasses life beyond the office. “It’s just fun to have that common thread of VMI in the city, be a part of helping these guys succeed, and they’re being a part of helping our firm succeed,” said Dawson.

“Shared history is such a valuable piece to deep-rooted relationships,” Caleb added. “VMI presents the opportunity to have a shared history with people that it wasn’t necessarily shared together at that time, but because of the tradition and the experience, you just have that bond.”

Both brothers have made it a point to help VMI succeed by financially supporting the Institute.

“It’s funny calling VMI a gift from the time we were there, but later in life, it really is a gift that keeps on giving in terms of relationships and getting to see other people grow businesses and work together and have an impact on your community,” Caleb noted. “It’s just kind of paying it forward by giving back.”

Dawson concurred, saying, “I just really believe that Virginia and America and the world need a school like VMI.”

He’s also convinced that alumni need each other for the VMI network to thrive. “As someone who is by a lot of metrics still considered a younger alumnus, I want to encourage younger alumni to get involved, whether that’s financially or socially,” Dawson stated. “I tell these people, 87% of success is showing up. If you don’t feel like VMI has done anything for you post-college, my question would be, have you shown up?”

“My advice to people who are at VMI is that you get out what you put into it—those memories that you get to build with brother rats and other cadets that are such a treasure moving forward in life to reflect back on,” said Caleb. “You just need to continue the relationships.”