Slocum to be honored for 45 years of service

By Krystin Nichols
Western Herald

Western Michigan University will hold a retirement reception on Tuesday, Aug. 31, honoring Don Slocum of facilities management for 45 years of service.

The reception will be held at the Fetzer Center, in room 1040 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. The event is open to the public.

Slocum began working for WMU in August 1965 as a ground crew member doing cement work, lawn maintenance and snow removal. He was drafted into the Army in February 1966 where he served in the United States and did a tour of duty in Vietnam.

Slocum returned to WMU in 1968 and worked on an electrical crew servicing and repairing all of the elevators on campus, which eventually led to his position as a full-time electrician.

He continued working with the electrical crew and went into appliance repair where he worked on appliances in Dining Services, the campus apartments and the residence halls.

In 1988, Slocum was promoted into supervision to set up and maintain a specialty crew dealing with painting, carpet repair and replacement, and appliance repair for all auxiliary buildings on campus.

When asked what his plans are post-retirement, Slocum said, “I have been happily married to the same wonderful woman for 40 years.”

“Hopefully retirement will allow me to spend more time with my three grandchildren as well as my hobbies of hunting and bike riding. I will certainly miss my work at WMU. It is the only place I have ever worked and I wouldn’t exchange all of the memories and people I have met and worked with for anything,” Slocum said.

“My family and I owe everything we have to WMU.  It’s been a fantastic 45 years,” Slocum said.

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Posted by HeraldAdmin on Aug 27 2010. Filed under Breaking, Campus, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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