What is your NMU connection?
I worked for 30 years in an academic department and am also a 1998 graduate
Your favorite NMU memory or story
Over those years, I have a lot of memories, some were happy, sad, funny, thrilling, and all very memorable. NMU played a huge role in who I am today. I will start at the beginning.
I graduated from Ishpeming High School in 1967 and really didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I didn’t want to go to college, figured I wasn’t smart enough. I was trained in office work and did well in shorthand and typing. My mother suggested I apply to NMU, so I headed to Kaye Hall where the personnel office was located. That building was ostentatious and quite intimidating, especially for a quiet girl with no self-confidence.
I was interviewed for a clerical position in the Department of Military Science (ROTC) and was thrilled when I got the job. The department was housed in the National Guard Armory. It was February 1970. Working with the officers, NCOs, cadets, and other staff opened up my world. I enjoyed the camaraderie, learned a lot, and started to come out of my shell.
One of my memories of working there was being held hostage. Across the nation, students were protesting the Vietnam War. On May 4, 1970, at Kent State, Ohio, National Guard troops shot at protesting students. Four died, and nine others were wounded. NMU students also demonstrated, and hundreds surrounded our building for many hours. We barricaded ourselves the whole day and stayed inside while students screamed at army personnel. Trying to ignore them, we continued our workday, but it was unsettling. When the students finally left, we saw four crosses had been painted on the armory’s brick wall.
The next year, I wanted to switch departments to work up campus. I was then hired in the Department of Sociology and Social Services. I moved into the Learning Resources Center and thought it was such a beautiful new building. I liked being “in the action” with all the professors, students, and staff. I was overwhelmed with the hundreds of students and faculty in this new facility, but I liked the hustle and bustle of campus life.
One funny memory that stands out during this period was when I had to learn Morse Code. The university was going through a budget crunch, and departments were told we had to save money. One cutback was with the telephones. The department head decided to have all the departmental staff, consisting of 12 instructors, on a party line. Each phone was installed with a red light and a buzzer, and I would buzz the incoming call to the respective faculty member using the initial of their last name in Morse Code, whether it was two longs, two shorts, or whatever. Frequently, my finger slipped on the buzzer, and I had to run into the hallway and yell that the buzz was a mistake. Then I buzzed the respective professor. Needless to say, that plan didn’t last very long. It was frustrating for all, and we went back to a two-party system where only two instructors shared a phone line.
Another memory was with the tremendous amount of class materials consisting of exams, syllabi, and handouts to duplicate, I had to order legal paper. When my supervisor heard that legal paper (8 1⁄2 x 14”) was cheaper than letter size (8 1⁄2 x 11”), he told me to order legal paper and have the work-study students cut off the bottom 3” of paper. That was a tedious task After one semester, it was discontinued, much to the relief of the student help and me.
Who is the most influential person you met during your time at NMU and why were they so influential?
The most influential person I encountered was my last department head, Richard Wright. Of course, there have been many, but he and I worked together from the mid-1980s until both our retirements in 2000.
Mr. Wright was legally blind. Because of his disability, he was permitted to hire a graduate assistant to help him with his administrative duties and class work. He was from Indiana, and his professors at IU asked him if he was going up to Northern to teach. Mr. Wright’s answer was “Of course! I’m not going to be selling pencils on the street corner!” I was impressed with his knowledge, determination, and dedication. When technology was first being introduced into the work environment, Mr. Wright wanted to learn computers as he thought it would greatly help him become more
independent. He read his lecture notes in Braille and hoped computers would assist him in other tasks.
Mr. Wright requisitioned various devices such as a Bernoulli Box and a free-standing computer. His grad assistant and I were recruited to read to him instructions for these devices. This was before the university had any type of technical office; we were on our own. A cursor blinked on a bank screen and seemed to say, “What do you want to do?” Both of us read parts of the manual to Richard, he pondered what key we should press, and we acted as “his eyes.” It was like the “blind leading the blind.” We were the pioneers in this capacity as no other department was doing that. But he was
determined to learn and instilled in us the tenacity and willingness to grasp the new technology.
It was around 1985 when Mr. Wright researched the Apple IIe computer and decided to purchase one for the department. It was something he thought the professors would use for their research. But they weren’t interested, and the computer gathered dust in our make-up exam room. One day I rolled the IIe into my office and started to “play”
with it. I booted it up and looked at the blinking cursor. I didn’t know what to do. Mr. Wright had me read the manual, and together we figured out how to use the word processor. When I typed out a memo, I was amazed that I didn’t need to use whiteout. The delete key was the best thing!
I was issued a new electronic typewriter, and Mr. Wright thought we could hook it up to the Apple to use it as a printer. Our department had large introductory courses, and I had to produce hundreds of exams, quizzes, and handouts. I used a ditto machine to duplicate these materials, and the ditto masters would fade after about 50 copies. I had to retype each exam over again so I could get dark copies. It was tedious, to say the least. Using a dot matrix printer wouldn’t work for that task. I needed a typewriter to make an actual impression on the ditto master. With the electronic typewriter as a printer, I could simply reprint each page with the click of a finger. But before that happened, Mr. Wright and I would again read the manuals so the two machines could “handshake.” He was tenacious, persistent, and finally, we got it to work. That was certainly a time saver.
Mr. Wright purchased the ASCII Express communications package. He wanted to use the Apple IIe as a hard-wired terminal. He thought we could register students using this as a terminal and gain access to Northern’s mainframe. Both the grad assistant and I worked tirelessly with Mr. Wright while we read that manual, and he pondered what key we should press. Day after day, the three of us worked on that project. There was no one to ask for help, and occasionally Fred Joyal came over to offer his assistance.
Meanwhile, Mr. Wright purchased his own Apple IIe for home, and he recruited his wife during the evenings to read him the ASCII Express manual.
The months went by, and one morning, he came into the office and excitedly reported to us, “Dolores read me more of the manual, and when I saw CICS [Customer Information Control System] across the screen, I knew I had successfully made it into the mainframe. I told Dolores to call for a reservation to the Northwoods. I wanted to take her out to dinner to celebrate that we did it!” We were all overjoyed. From then on, I registered our majors for their classes and printed their schedules on my typewriter. I loved that task and enjoyed helping the students.
Richard Wright was fair, honest, and encouraged me to blossom into the computer age which I happily did. When faculty were issued laptop computers, I instructed them how to use them. To help the staff, I wrote a computer manual and issued copies to the faculty at a department seminar. They appreciated my assistance with this user-friendly
manual. I enrolled in university classes as per my union contract, and Mr. Wright was supportive of this endeavor. I was married with four children and wanted to work towards a degree. With my full-time job and managing a family, I enrolled in one class a semester and finally, after 20 years, I received my bachelor’s degree.
How did NMU help you get to where you are today?
As I stated earlier, I thought I wasn’t smart enough for college classes, but with determination, I found going to college was fun. I actually enjoyed every class I took. It increased my self-esteem and self-confidence, and I graduated magna cum laude. I feel NMU helped me to accomplish so much in my life personally and professionally.