WAUKESHA – When she was hired in 1967, Betty Gygax, was the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha’s first faculty secretary. She retires in January 2006 as so much more.
While her title then was lead typist, for many years her main duty centered more on uniting the disparate members of the faculty and staff and, as functional social director for the campus family, serving as the glue that holds them together.
Not surprisingly, she landed her position at the year-old campus by finding connections and piecing them together, a method she has honed. Times were hard, and Job Service, where she worked, was cutting its budget. She was slated to move to the Milwaukee office, miles from her Pewaukee home. Taking job orders as they came in, she spotted the opening at UW-Waukesha and selected that one for herself. Bill Denehl, the business manager at the time, hired her immediately, starting a 38-year career of service, care and fun.
“I had the best view in Northview (Hall). I could see Holy Hill from my office,” she raves. That didn’t last long, but by the time Gygax moved to an interior office, she already had become minister of fun. She made sure there were coffee and snacks, which she carefully meted out to make them last. Faculty and staff from various disciplines gathered to enjoy the camaraderie and discuss sports, politics, current issues, academics, and nonsense.
The coffee and snacks are less frequent now, but the central fun and feeding spot remains “Betty’s café.” Chief connector, she assumes a duty to welcome newcomers to the campus, questions them about their interests, and introduces them to others on campus who share some part of those.
In a sense, Gygax learned how to be a mother at the university. When her son, Rodney came along in 1974, she was well practiced. In fact, Jacquelyn Oliveira, who teaches sociology on campus, claims that Gygax “has a degree.” Of course, she didn’t earn it in the usual way, and her major field of study is not found in many college catalogs. Yet, her expertise is undeniable.
Nurse Betty also runs a first aid station – supplying necessities from band aids to aspirin. She stocks tools, paper plates, and a variety of other materials to meet an array of needs that pop up. When faculty, staff, or students place a call for help, Betty jumps to the rescue. Once she picked up a student whose brakes had locked up, getting him to school in time for an exam. She has gone to the airport to get a stranded faculty member.
As computers phased in, her official job changed. She became a document production specialist, working with a new set of equipment. Gone are the long-carriage typewriter, the mimeograph machine, and the stencils (“with liquid that would make you high”). “I don’t miss doing carbons,” she says. Instead, she took charge of other office machines and, since 1994 has handled mail processing as well. Students know her as the go-to person for transparencies and anything else they can’t easily find. Faculty and staff call “Betty” (pronounced like “Mooooom”) when a copy machine acts up.
It will be the people she misses most when she retires. “There have been so many good people to work with. They always made our work fun,” she reminisces. “I will miss them tremendously.” They have become a part of her life and she a part of theirs. “I’ve gone to the weddings of students and of children of the faculty,” rejoiced when their grandchildren were born, mourned when loved ones died.
In her own life, Gygax became a mother and a grandmother during her tenure at UW-Waukesha, and she shared those joys with co-workers, too. Her first grandchild, Olivia, was born October 9, 2005.
For awhile, her retirement will mean old-fashioned mothering – care of her granddaughter so her daughter-in-law, Jennifer, can return to work. She and husband Carl hope to spend more time at their place in Eagle River as well. She also plans to join a red hat club and keep on laughing with all the friends she’s cultivated over the years. |
