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Lyndon Listed: Top 10 Longest Serving Faculty and Staff

By Dave Marks

On October 21, 2011

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Everyone loves a list: top 10 places to live, two 10 most influential people, top 10 best albums of the year. Knowing this and looking to fulfill that love, journalist Dave Marks has ventured out to create some lists based on Lyndon's Campus.

This week's "Lyndon Listed" category is top 10 longest serving faculty and staff at Lyndon. Maintenance supervisor Art Peake is ranked at number one. He has been a part of the college staff since 1972.

When it comes to faculty, Ernest Broadwater from the education department is at the top. This faculty member remembers the first computer lab at Lyndon, describing it as a small computer lab with 8-10 "black apples, not Macs." Lyndon later bought 16 additional K of memory to upgrade the 48K black apples. Broadwater would have a hard time in 2011 counting the amount of computers our school has.

Broadwater's office sits on the fourth floor, across from the very room where the initial computer lab was located. Broadwater says he is reminded of his achievements at Lyndon every time he visits the schools. During his 36 years at Lyndon, seeing Lyndon's student's becoming teachers, and giving a contribution to society is assuring to him.

During his time here, Broadwater partook in a Fullbright International Exchange program where he taught in England. A decade later he took a sabbatical to teach at a University in Japan. In his 36 years, he has applied to jobs in Australia, and thought about moving to Seattle, but in the end he says he couldn't see himself leaving Vermont.

In third place it's Ronald Rossi and John DeLeo who have been professors at Lyndon since 1976. That was the year that Vail Hall was built, and Psychology Professor Rossi still has the original paint on his office walls. Ronald Rossi and John DeLeo can vaguely remember coming to Lyndon at the same time 35 years ago.

In regards to Rossi and the Psychology department, he says although the faculty and students have changed over the years, the mission to "focus on experiential learning" has stayed the same in the 35 years of the Psychology department.

Rossi claims that in all his years at Lyndon, it has never crossed his mind to leave this college.

"Lyndon has good people, good students, and I have always enjoyed working here.. and it's a wonderful place to raise children" he added.

"In 1976, Lyndon was a small college. In 2011 we have maintained that unique sense of community. Proportions have changed but we still have that same kind of atmosphere" says DeLeo from the Mountain recreation department.

As a department changes to stay competitive, a professor's career changes also.

It has been three times that DeLeo's career has changed. The Ski Resort management major was once known as community recreation when it started at Lyndon. For DeLeo his career focus has transitioned over the years going from an adventure leadership concentration, then resource management. Now most recently in 2011, ski resort has taken a focus on now a geographic mapping field.

Being here for 35 years is a "double edged sword" DeLeo describes it. There is a certain "wisdom" that comes with working through different administrations (presidents). Having and knowing the history of how things used to be comes with a responsibility. At the same time DeLeo says it can be a burden being a professor who knows the way things were.

James Bozeman is a little higher up the list. The math and computer science professor has been at Lyndon since 1985, ranking him at number 9. Since 1985 Bozeman speaks about how much this school has improved from his prospective. "The reputation is better, and it's been a constant progression upwards."

When asked about his accomplishments and achievements over 25 years here, he noted his enjoyment in helping students, watching them go on to graduate school, and getting good jobs. There are personal achievements such as getting research grants, and publications of his work, which lead him to feel comfortable about accomplishing his goals in life. Bozeman then remembered his goal of breaking 90 in "real golf."

The closest Bozeman says he ever came to leaving Lyndon was in the early ‘90s when he was offered a job at Castleton. He saw more opportunity at Lyndon when it came to teaching a diverse set of classes.