After a combined 91 years of working for Hillsdale College, Carolyn Spencer and Joanne Cook are retiring from their current positions in the financial affairs office. Spencer served as the college’s assistant controller, and Cook served as the college’s internal auditor.
Both women attended Hillsdale College as non-traditional students, attending classes while working full-time. Spencer and Cook graduated with degrees in accounting in 1993 and 1998, respectively.
Spencer said she and Cook grew up near the college and share many of the same values, work ethic, dedication, attention to detail, and humor.
“Working with Joanne all these years has been very enjoyable, to say the least, and many of my projects were completed with her valuable assistance,” Spencer said.
When Spencer began working in the summer of ’69 filling in for vacationing staff in various offices, she planned on working at the college for five years as she finished her education. Cook began working for the college’s admissions office and said never imagined she’d spend the next four decades working at the college.
After moving to the financial affairs office, Cook began to work with Spencer –– who had moved to working as the secretary for former college President J. Donald Phillips –– on a regular basis.
“Joanne’s work responsibilities there, as well as mine in the president’s office, kept us in daily contact and began our friendship,” Spencer said. “We even discovered we shared the same birthday.”
Cook said she was always interested in numbers and thrilled to be able to study accounting and then work in the college’s accounting office.
Hillsdale College’s former Chief Administrative Officer Ken Cole supervised Spencer and Cole when they worked in the financial affairs office and also taught both women in his “Governmental Accounting” class, in which both students excelled.
“Their work was already top-notch,” Cole said. “They wanted to complete their degrees, but they rose to the top, and I expected that out of them.”
When Cook first started off in the financial affairs office as a secretary, Cole said it was obvious she was talented enough to be doing more.
“She was very competent, always available, and on top of her work all of the time,” Cole said.
Outside of work, Cole said he and Spencer golfed together, and still do today, but also play a lot of time playing pickleball now that they are both retired.
During her time in the financial affairs office, Cook said she enjoyed working with Spencer for her up-beat attitude.
“She’s a lot of fun,” Cook said. “She’s very energetic, and you never know what she’s going to come up with.”
In her early years working for the college, Spencer said she served coffee during a meeting between Phillips and president-elect George Roche.
“This was a formal setting and coffee was to be served on a tray with cups and saucers, and cream and sugar,” Spencer said. “Due to my ‘newness’ and no waitressing experience, I was very nervous serving both gentlemen, and as a result, bumped into a chair spilling hot coffee on Dr. Roche. Needless to say I was mortified and thought I would be terminated or transferred. Fortunately for me, neither event happened.”
Following her time working for Phillips, Spencer said she has worked on every floor in Central Hall, working as a secretary, executive secretary, executive assistant, and finally assistant controller. She even witnessed Roche’s battle with the Departments of Health, Education, and Welfare regarding the college’s independence from government control.
“From Ronald Reagan to Bill Buckley to then Secretary of State Alexander Haig, the campus was exposed to national and international leaders in their respective fields, and it was both an honor and a thrill to meet them,” Spencer said. “With this exposure brought increased funding from constituents all across the country in support of the College’s battle against government intervention at a time when the College needed all the help it could get.”
Since her first summer working for the college, Spencer said the most obvious change has been the improvement of technology. She was originally trained on a switchboard with sets of cords and five line for incoming and outgoing calls. There were no computers, fax, or copy machines.
“Offices were equipped with manual typewriters and one had to type on stencils for mimeographing multiple copies,” Spencer said. “Now most everything can be handled via cell phones.”
Cook added that another big change since she began working for the college has been the increase in the student population.
“There’s a need for more buildings, more dorms, and more growth,” Cook said.
Both Spencer and Cook agree that Hillsdale College was a special place to work and are grateful for their experiences and the friendships developed throughout their careers.
“It’s the people there,” Cook said. “Everyone is very nice and easy to get along with. It was a wonderful place to work, and it really enriched my life.”