Unsung Hero: Ron Bowerman and Restructuring at Campus Services
If you have ever seen clean facilities here at Wabash College, chances are you have indirectly come in contact with Ron Bowerman. If you have ever printed something from the library, you have also indirectly come in contact with Ron Bowerman. And if you have ever seen a small, cream-colored warehouse by Mud Hollow, you have unknowingly passed by his humble office.
But who is Ron Bowerman, and furthermore, why should you care?
For the past three decades, Ron Bowerman has worked in Campus Services, dedicating himself in tireless, thankless service to Wabash College. In his time here he has served many duties, watched presidents and professors alike come and go, and touched the lives of many students—myself included. However, effective of December 31, 2009, he will be forced to take an early leave due to the current financial crisis. To say he loves his job is a gross understatement, and to look at Wabash after his leave is to realize that one of the sincerest Little Giants, with one of the biggest hearts, has left the building.
In this article I will attempt to bestow but the tiniest ounce of gratitude to one of Wabash’s unsung heroes. Though you may not know him, please take the time to hear his story. A great philosopher once said that those who put themselves first will be last, and those who put themselves last would be first. Through this man’s thankless service, I truly say to you he is one of the greatest Little Giants to ever grace Wabash’s campus. This is his story.
Ron Bowerman was born here in Crawfordsville on August 16, 1941. An only child, he spent the first four years of his life in Indiana until moving in 1945 to Nocona, Texas, where he would live until his junior year of high school. During that he would move to Perryton, Texas, and from there graduate in 1960. This was when Ron began to exhibit two very important qualities still seen in his life today: his love of serving others and his love for family.
A story Ron often tells from high school is when he bought a car for his father. But this wasn’t any ordinary car; you see, Ron’s father was disabled, making driving with one leg nearly impossible with a manual. Saddened by watching his father shift gears with a makeshift lever, Ron took on several after-school jobs and worked until he was able to surprise his father with a new vehicle—one with an automatic transmission. Nearly fifty years after this impressive act of love, Ron still sheds a tear of joy telling how happy his father was that day.
After graduation, Ron worked a few small jobs while helping his father, until the family moved back to Indiana to be nearer to his sick grandparents. In this time though, Ron started to feel a lack of direction. This all changed in September of 1965, when he was called into service and drafted into the United States Army.
Recompense
Ron attended basic training in Fort Knox, KY, and went on to take his AIT at Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri. Despite scoring a one hundred on his mechanical aptitude test, Ron ended up in the 82nd Combat Engineers as a Combat mostly Engineer, trained to operate heavy machinery. (As Ron told me in his interview, when the Army finds out you like something, you find yourself changing jobs.) In his time overseas, Ron spent eighteen and a half months in Bamberg, Germany, where he helped to build everything from bridges to playgrounds. When asked about his service, Ron solemnly replied that “The Army made me grow up; it made me realize what life’s all about.”
After spending two years in service to his country, Ron left the Army in September of 1967 and within three months married his fiancé, Sue. Using additional mechanical training he received in Germany, he worked at an auto parts store for the next twelve and a half years. In this time he would become a father twice over. On June 30, 1970, Ron welcomed his son, Tim, into the world; and on January 8, 1973, he welcomed his daughter, Tammy. Near the end of this period he started applying for a job at Wabash College, and after three and a half years was finally hired on April 7, 1980.
What attracted Ron to Wabash College was its reputation as the best place to work in Montgomery County, as well as its promising benefits of life insurance, health insurance, and retirement programs. (Not to mention the promise of retiring at sixty-two.)
Ron speaks of his early years at Wabash with great fondness. His duties included rotating between a coal-fired boiler—which helped to heat the campus—and working with the grounds-keeping crew. When it came to the boiler, Ron admits that despite the dirtiness and often physically demanding task of shoveling, he enjoyed the hard work. For grounds-keeping, Ron especially enjoyed mowing around the buildings. On hot days, the staff would come out and generously offer him soft drinks. This is when Ron first felt at home at Wabash. Such a small atmosphere made making friends easy, and in no time at all he felt like part of the family.
In his first years Ron was fortunate enough to work under President Lewis Salter. Here is what Ron had to say about his old friend:
“President Salter. He was such a good person. You could talk with him. I remember one time on the maintenance crew he gave us all a dollar raise. He would come down here with us maintenance people because he loved us; he would even drink coffee with us. His wife, Mrs. Salter, was a super lady. They had parties at the Elston Home. I always enjoyed going to them, and it just made my day. It was a wonderful place to work.”
As the years went on, Ron grew more and more at home at Wabash, until finally being asked to run the storeroom when a fellow employee grew too sick to continue the job. (This is where Ron works to this day.)
In the storeroom, Ron’s duties consist of ordering and databasing both cleaning supplies and office supplies for campus use. This includes copy paper (seen at every printer around campus), ink cartridges, and even the very staples that bind your papers. Besides the storeroom, Ron also covers for the motorpool, and, on occasion, helps to deliver the mail. (This includes going to the post-office, sorting it, and then delivering it to the Chapel, etc.)
But with the storeroom in mind, we look to today’s problem—that is, after twenty-nine years and eight months of service, Ron has become a casualty of the financial crisis. To understand why Ron is leaving, we need to examine how Campus Services employs its workers—something I honestly admit is a little confusing.
The year was 1993, and Andy Ford was sworn in as Wabash’s fourteenth president. As students in the White Era, we all know Andy Ford as the man who drastically updated the Wabash campus. But not all of his decisions were well-received. Not long after taking office, Andy Ford dropped Campus Services from the payroll—effectively eliminating most benefits—and hired them to a contracting company. (Let me make a note here: Campus Services is STILL Wabash. The only thing that changed was the source of their pay.)
Think about it this way: While Campus Services works for Wabash College, Sodexo technically employs them. (As for what this means to its employees, when Ron was hired by Sodexo in the mid 1990’s, it was a little like starting over.)
For the recent financial crisis, on the surface a lower endowment means restructuring academic departments; under the surface it involves Wabash not having enough money for Sodexo’s contract. This means restructuring Campus Services as well. Like the academic departments, the main goal is to preserve the current standard, but with less manpower and more efficiency. In our case, it sadly means letting go a man who is only four months away from thirty years of service.
When I sat down with Ron, he mentioned he had three goals for the year. First was working until the fifth of March, which is his wife’s sixty-fifth birthday. This would allow her to get insurance, which is quite difficult with her medical problems. Second was working until April the seventh, which marks thirty years at Wabash College. The third goal is best stated by Ron himself, who fought very hard to contain tears as he told me in our interview:
“And then the third goal was, I’ve got such wonderful students working for me…that it’s just like family. I love ‘em all, and I…really wanted to work until the school year was over because I love all of you students.”
If I told you that Ron was willing to work a few months past his contract—for free—just to finish out the 2009-2010 school year, would that give you an indication of how much he loves Wabash College?
But, as we all know, when the time calls for cost-cutting, hard decisions must be made, like it or not. The storeroom will effectively be eliminated and moved to the bookstore, while Sodexo will be left in charge of their own supplies. In life all good things come to an end, and Ron was contemplating retirement at the end of the year regardless.
As Ron said, “I’m really gonna miss my students if I have to leave December the thirty-first. It’s basically killin’ me that, you know, life’s not really always fair, but I just pray that my students can continue on. They’ve just shown me so much love, and that’s why I love my job. Period.”
For his plans post-Wabash, Ron recently bought some equipment and plans on opening up a small-time business with his son. In addition, he plans on devoting much of his free time to his two grandchildren, Dereck and Emily. Both are involved in three sports each, and Ron rarely misses a game.
Perhaps in closing, it is best to let Ron speak for himself:
“Oh, its been the best job of my life! I’ve had so many wonderful students, made so many friends; and you know, you could have all the money in the world, but if you didn’t have any friends, you wouldn’t have anything!”
“My students this year are almost like sons to me, and I, I wanna see ‘em go through this year. [chokes up] Because they mean a lot to me.”
Ron, we wish you the best of luck after Wabash. You will be sorely missed.
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