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The Marshall University Alumni Association,
I had been assistant director of athletics and head volleyball coach. I was looking for a career change and did not want to leave Marshall. My long love affair with Marshall started as a student and continued through my full-time employment. A number of my friends suggested this position would be a good match for me. So with that encouragement, I applied. I remember meeting with the selection committee around a table in the Memorial Student Center – Phil Cline, Denise Welker, Carol Vickers, Bill Heaberlin and others and, finally, Dr. Bernard Queen, the executive director of the Marshall University Foundation, offering me the job. To this day, I have a special fondness for Dr. Queen for his faith and confidence in me to the lead the Alumni Association. The association, at the time, was a quasi free-standing organization under the Marshall University Foundation Inc. It had been nurtured and capably led by my predecessors, Dr. Everett Roush and Karen Thomas. Dr. Roush was a mainstay at the alumni office and a tremendous support person for me. Financial resources were limited and the demands to grow the association and get more alumni involved were continually increasing. My staff and I were located on the second floor of the Memorial Student Center. The staff included Shirley Henson, Mary Abrams, Vickie Scites and Ethelene Holley, along with Susie Peyton, a full-time employee in the communication office, who wrote the Greenline and the Marshall Magazine, the main links with our alumni. I’ve often thought how hidden the alumni office was then, and how visitors had to find us tucked away in our three small, windowless offices. That is why it was so important when Mr. Charlie O. Erickson made a generous gift enabling the Marshall University Foundation to purchase the Kincaid Mann Mortuary and give the association a visible home for our alumni. Oh yes, I’ve heard all the jokes about what the building once was and even tagged myself the “mistress of the mortuary,” but we finally had a home and the importance of the alumni association became more apparent. The struggles to make the Erickson Alumni Center a place to house our alumni offices, host events and be a destination was not accomplished overnight, but through the efforts of many. I would particularly like to mention the dedication of three other colleagues I had the pleasure to work with at the Erickson Alumni Center: Phyllis York, Nancy Pelphrey and Jerry Schroyer. I’m truly indebted to them for all they did to support me and the association. It is so thrilling to see the association continue to grow in stature and importance while watching as the new Alumni/Foundation Center emerges from the efforts of many who dreamed of it for years. The center will continue to strengthen the association and become the first stop for alumni and friends as they return to Marshall. I have bittersweet emotions as I look at the Erickson Alumni Center as a temporary shell and aging beauty as we all await the new center. The Erickson Alumni Center, in my opinion, allowed the association to turn the corner and become a major player within the university and be recognized as the important link to the “outside.” I am honored to have been just a small part of the association’s early years and someone that helped alumni and friends reconnect with Marshall. As director, I had the honor and privilege of meeting and working with so many individuals who “bleed green,” whether they were a board member, a club member or one of those Herd faithful at the many, many pre-game receptions. It truly made all those weekday, weekend meetings/events all worthwhile. I have so many fond memories and will cherish them forever. I look with pride as the Alumni Association continues to grow and play a more significant role in the development of the university. You’ve come a long way baby, and I’m thrilled to have been there for a portion of it. ------------------------------- Linda Holmes was the Alumni Association director for 14 years. She is currently director of development and alumni affairs for the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine.
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“There is someone here to see you,” the secretary
in the Athletic Department announced in June of 1984. This was
my first encounter with Shirley Henson, my new colleague from
the Alumni Association. She had come to give me my duties as I
began my position of director of alumni affairs on July 1. She
handed me a “to do list” and said there was more to come. That
brief encounter began my wonderful journey into becoming
director of the Alumni Association and one of the university’s
main “friend raisers.”      |