On a typical summer weekend, traffic on U.S. 70 usually streams east, with trucks hauling boats toward the coast, children already layered with sunblock and parents looking forward to a relaxing tan. Instead, alumnus Drake Bratton drove the opposite direction, from one home to another, New Bern to North Carolina State University, where he would start college. 

“It felt like going upstream,” he said. “Everybody was heading to the beach, where I usually find myself, and, yet, here I am headed to the middle of the state to follow in my family’s footsteps.”

40 Years of Business

Bratton, a December ‘86 graduate of what is now NC State’s Poole College of Management, is now the Broker-in-Charge of Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage in New Bern. He oversees more than 35 agents and has facilitated hundreds of transactions over the last twenty years, including multimillion-dollar deals that shape his waterfront hometown.

Before he was a broker, and before he watched his sons take their first steps, he was part of something foundational: a university that guided his father, his uncles, his brothers and now, his sons.

Bratton said, “I was in the first group of Poole students that was separate from the humanities. At that time, NC State was more well known for textiles and engineering than for business, and my father, Lewis Palmer Bratton ‘52, believed fiercely in the textile school.” 

His father’s textile degree in chemistry and dyeing earned him a steady and respectable job at DuPont, a pioneering developer of high-performance textile technologies, and even though he would eventually pivot fields, Bratton recalled how his father always maintained that the foundational experience he earned at NC State is what had carried him far.

“Back then, degrees were more trade-oriented,” Bratton said, “built to secure a job and get straight to work.” In the mid-1980s, however, when Bratton arrived, the university was beginning to expand. Poole’s creation in particular signaled a certain shift in the university’s culture. 

“Our business fraternity advocated for Poole all the way back in 1985 to be its own college, and we made it clear to the deans and department heads that Poole had the strength to stand on its own,” Bratton said.

Today, Poole is now one of NC State’s most visible colleges, and Bratton’s two sons both chose it without a single backup plan. His oldest son, Palmer, graduated in 2025, while the younger, Ted, is currently enrolled and set to graduate in 2027. 

“NC State has always felt like more than just a school to me,” Palmer shared, having completed both the Shelton Leadership Center student program and interning in Spain. “It’s a shared legacy among my family. It has become a place that I can call home and somewhere that I have made so many memories that will stay with me long after I graduate.”

“I was made for the pack, and I’m proud of it.”

Ted agreed, having been heavily involved with Poole Student Organizations. “I was made for the pack, and I’m proud of it. NC State has given so much to my family, and I’m grateful for every opportunity I’ve taken.”

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Building New Bern’s Wolfpack

Drake’s NC State fraternity brothers and friends from Poole College still gather for family celebrations even decades later. Similarly those ties run deep in his professional life. Over the years, Drake has worked with fellow alumni across a variety of industries such as soil scientists, engineers, business owners, buyers and sellers. 

“I’m a wolf who wants to bring alumni together,” Drake emphasized, “There was an NC State employee I met at a State game in 2019, Shelton Brown, who really wanted a way to connect alumni across eastern NC in a non-sports-related setting. I helped him reach out to a few different alumni, and one of those alumni was William (Will) L. Lewis Jr., the mayor of Havelock, North Carolina. With Will’s help, we sent out multiple invitations and gathered almost 50 nearby alumni to have dinner together one weekend.”

“I’m a wolf who wants to bring alumni together.”

The choice to build NC State networks rather than just benefit from them eventually shaped Drake’s decision to become a Poole College donor, giving $10,000 annually. He sees it as a continuation of his father’s legacy of hard work, thinking and doing.

A Family Legacy

Drake’s father grew up in Raleigh and worked tirelessly while attending NC State. In one of Drake’s favorite photographs of his father, he is pushing a wheelbarrow full of bricks and helping construct what would become the Tucker and Owen Residence Halls in front of the Tri-Towers.

Now, when Drake imagines telling his father, who has now passed, about his brokerage leadership, philanthropic giving and his two sons following in their footsteps, the response is simple, “Keep doing your best,” he hears.

For Drake, that now means going above and beyond for clients and setting an example for the dozens of agents who look to him for direction.

On weekends, though, Drake still makes time to go upstream, see a Wolfpack game, spend time with his sons and see a few longtime friends at the place that built a foundation, brick by brick, for a family that will always remain wolf-at-heart.

Giving Back

Supporting North Carolina State University through philanthropy or volunteering is a meaningful way to strengthen the Wolfpack community and create lasting impact.

Whether it’s making a gift to support student scholarships, academic programs, or campus initiatives, or giving your time to mentor students, serve at events, or engage with fellow alumni, every contribution helps move NC State forward. Together, these efforts fuel opportunity, foster connection and ensure the university continues to thrive for generations to come.