“When I first started, I never really thought I would be in the same place for 25 years.”
Long Service Award recipient Robert La Rose and his wife Marianne have called Western home for more than 25 years. Robert was among 67 faculty and staff members honoured for 25 years of service.
These are the sentiments shared by Ann McFadden, one of 67 faculty and staff members celebrating 25 years of service at The University of Western Ontario. A ceremony honouring the Long Service Award recipients was held at Gibbons Lodge on May 27.
McFadden was hired as a secretary in Alumni Relations. She worked as an assistant to the editor of the Alumni Gazette magazine and is retiring this year from her role as an Administrative Officer in the Department of Communications and Public Affairs.
What kept McFadden at Western for so many years? “It is a great place to work,” she says.
Noting it would be his last Long Service Awards ceremony as president, Paul Davenport says the occasion is a favourite because it brings together faculty and staff.
“So many of the goals the university set for itself depended on the strong support and co-operation of both faculty and staff, and we best achieve those goals when faculty and staff are working together in an environment of mutual respect and support,” he says.
For Robert and Marianne La Rose, Western is like an old friend that you keep coming back to.
The couple received their undergraduate and master’s degrees at Western. Although the pair moved to Winnipeg for Robert to play professional football, they always knew they would return to their Western roots.
“We were married here in our last year (of undergraduate),” says Marianne. “We always thought we would like to come back here and raise our family.”
Now, both work at the university as faculty members – Robert in Kinesiology and Marianne in Education. Robert was honoured for 25 years of service and says the faculty, staff and students have become part of “our extended family.”
From being students themselves to joining the faculty, Western has “been the centre of our lives for 25 years,” adds Marianne.