Retirement reception gives educators prospective on their time at MSU
Brianda Morales | Photographer
Five retiring faculty and staff members of the College of Education were celebration on Monday at a retirement reception at the Dillard Business College.
Martha Burger, an assistant professor for Educational Leadership and Technology, has been at MSU since 2001.
“Well I think it’s time,” she said. ” I think I’m at a time in my life that I think that there are other things I want to do including just relaxing and enjoying myself and traveling. My husband and I have not had an opportunity to spend time together in all these years that I have been working So I’m ready to do that.”
Millie Gore, who has worked at Midwestern since 1993, is a Hardin Distinguished Professor in the Counseling, Kinesiology, and Special Education. Gore said mental conditions were a contributing factor to her retirement decision.
“I’ve been in public education for 36 years and I’m 60 years old and I want to write full-time. I had a brain tumor removed in 2004 and have neurological problems associated with that. And so I understand better than most people how precious life is and this is the time I need to actually change careers, so I can write fulltime or however many years I have left.”
Education certification officer Clarence Darter is retiring for a second time after originally retiring in 1998.
Darter said his most rewarding educational moment was not a single moment.
“It’s a constant thing to see the students come in and maturing and leaving, later full fledge teachers and then getting out to the community and being successful,” Darter said. ” All of that makes it worthwhile.”
After retiring, Donna Tettleton, assistant to the dean for grants in administration, said she may possible work part-time.
“I decided to do the Volunteer Separation Program plus my mother who needs me at home a little bit more. But the two things together, I thought it was the right time to,” she said.
Tettleton said seeing how her students turn out in the end is one of her favorite moments as an educator.
“Always seeing the students and always having the student come back and tell you how much of an influence that you’ve had on them,” she said.
Mary Ann Coe, a Nest Foundation Distinguished Professor, said to prepare for retirement she is working on learning the concept of relaxing.
” I’m getting old and you know changes have happened and it’s time to move on to bigger things or other things anyway,” Coe said.
Before the ceremony ended, each of the professors was handed a gift from the department as a thank you.
When Dr. Matthew Capps, the Dean of Education was approached about the matter of five of his members retiring he said it is going to very difficult to replace the institution of knowledge that the five staff members carry.
“It would really depend on senior faculty to kinda help guide us as we are doing out work,” Capps said. “They’ve been here for a while, they know what works and what doesn’t work by now. You lose that, you lose your ability to work, makes it harder to replace. You can replace the body, you can’t replace the knowledge quite as easily.”