Roberts retires after 26 years at WU
It is August 1990. The number of students enrolled at Waynesburg College is around 900. There are two streets that run through the future location of Johnson Commons. The campus bookstore and student activities are found in Benedum Hall. It is not that difficult to find a space to park.
Fast forward 26 years to December of 2016. The enrollment at Waynesburg University is approximately 1,400 students. At the center of campus is the Stover Center, home to the bookstore and the Beehive. The Benedum is now known as Benedum Dining Hall. As many people know, it is anything but easy to find parking.
It is also the last semester before Dr. Marilyn Roberts, professor of English, officially retires from her teaching job at Waynesburg University.
When Roberts started at Waynesburg College in August of 1990, she had a two-year old toddler and commuted from her home in Washington, Pennsylvania. Now, her son is nearly 30, and she and her husband are preparing to permanently move to their summer home in Vermont. Instead of preparing her office for another year, she’s preparing herself for the next part of her life: her retirement.
While Roberts describes herself as a future focused person who doesn’t look in the past, her colleagues did quite the opposite.
Dr. Jamie Dessart, professor of English, has worked with Roberts for the past 17 years. Through those 17 years, Dessart has learned enough from Roberts to last a lifetime; the first words Dessart said was, “Wow…there’s so much.”
One of the biggest things Roberts has taught her, Dessart said, is how true it is when people say if you find a job you love, you never work a day in your life.
“She taught me a lot about loving what you do and going in and doing what you love because I watch her do what she loves and understanding that that’s how you reach students, is if you do what you love,” Dessart said.
This observation is something that has not gone unnoticed in the department, as Dr. Bob Randolph, chairperson for the for the English and Foreign Languages Department, recalls when he first noticed this about Roberts.
“I respect teachers who live out what they teach. They love it. You can’t take it out of them,” he said. “I think she’s that kind of teacher. You could get a crowbar and I don’t think you’re going to be able to pry Shakespeare out of her, it’s just not going to happen.”
Throughout her 26 and a half years at the university, Roberts has accumulated a list of accomplishments long enough to fill four pages of a résumé. One of her undertakings is being the director of the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), which was officially launched in the spring of 2007.
Roberts said this is something she is most proud of.
“I must say some of the best parts of this experience would be creating and running the [CTE],” she said. “That’s been wonderful.”
Roberts’ dedication to the CTE has been a great benefit to the faculty and staff on campus, as her efforts have been praised just as much as its director.
“She founded the [CTE], which is an instrument that works with teachers to help them teach better and gather together and talk about writing, about teaching, programs that have to do with that,” Randolph said. “So she’s been active in that as the director, and I don’t know how that could be replaced.”
In some ways, said Randolph, Roberts is irreplaceable.
“When someone with this much presence leaves any organization, it seems like there is a hole and that’s probably what it’s going to feel like,” said Randolph. “The organization is vital enough, if different things shape out in the future, but that very thing that left, you can’t redo Marilyn with another Marilyn.”
This comes from the knowledge that Roberts consistently goes above and beyond for her students and colleagues, something that both Randolph and Dessart agree on.
“She’s really good at challenging students to rise as far as they can and to do as much as they can, and be as good as they can. I think in that way she’s made a real impact on a lot of individual students’ lives,” said Dessart. “On the [impact to the] faculty, you can always count on Marilyn. When she does something, she does it 100 percent from top to bottom and you know it’s going to be done well.”
Roberts has done things so well that, according to Dessart, her departure will make the department feel as if something is missing.
“I think for the department there’s going to be a hole. She is such a funny wonderful person,” said Dessart. “She has this sense of humor and a lot of people, when they first take her in class don’t recognize it. It’s one of those senses of humor that the more you get to know her, the more you realize.”
Her sense of humor is apparent in her office where she displays action figures of Shakespeare, Jane Austen and Charles Dickens on a bookshelf next to her computer. These action figures are something that many people associate with Roberts.
These action figures are among the items she is preparing to box up as she begins her road to retirement. Looking ahead, Roberts’ bucket list for after her retirement is almost as long as her résumé.
“I want to go back to working on some projects in Jane Austen and Shakespeare that I’ve had to put on the back burner and I have a couple of ideas for some publications in teaching and learning too,” she said. “Then some creative writing projects and a favorite hobby of mine I haven’t had enough time for is genealogy.”
In addition, Roberts hopes to devote more time to health and fitness activities, traveling, volunteering and maybe even pursuing her archaeology interest by going on a dig or two. Most importantly, Roberts is excited to spend more time with her family.
Despite her preference to look ahead, Roberts said that she will certainly miss working in the environment Waynesburg brings.
“My fondest memories will be of the people I’ve worked with and students over the years, so I guess it’s really about people,” she said. “They’re what makes this place special.”