Observer, Volume 16, Number 18, Thursday May 25 1995


Retiring: Close, Marie Henderson, Thodt

Two administrative assistants and a food service supervisor are among those retiring this year.

Administrative assistant Betty Close divides her time in the conservatory between the music education division and the dean's office, where she handles applications for positions and student evaluations of faculty. Early in her 22-year Oberlin career she worked in other offices, including that of the dean of the college. She has worked for three different conservatory deans: Emil Danenberg, David Boe, and now Karen Wolff.

"It is difficult to imagine how we will manage without Betty Close," Wolff says. "Her quiet efficiency and unfailingly pleasant manner have marked her many years of service to the conservatory. We wish her much happiness in her retirement."

In the 1950s Close worked in the Carroll County (Ohio) registrar's office. She has been married to Glenn Close for 42 years; he is retired from Smith Dairy. They have four children and seven grandchildren, three of them living nearby. "My husband and I are avid Fostoria glass collectors and also genealogy buffs," Close says.

'Attending to detail'

"For many of us Marie Henderson is Talcott Dining," says Talcott house director Ehrai Adams. "She rules . . . with a velvet fist, attending to detail, tasting, testing. Everything must be just so." Known as "Miss Marie," Henderson has supervised food service in Talcott for 22 years.

Born in New Orleans, Henderson moved to Lorain in 1948 and to Oberlin in 1956. She started working for the college in 1957, cleaning food service offices. In Dascomb she worked at the dish machine in the kitchen and set tables in the dining room. "When she began, meals were table waited and served family style," Adams says. "Suits and ties were required of the men." Henderson became salad preparer, second cook, then first cook, working in every kitchen on campus. "She opened South and Lord Saunders dining halls," Adams says. In 1973 Henderson was promoted to food service supervisor and caterer. On occasion she catered Creole food for President S. Frederick Starr.

Henderson's 14-year-old adopted son--her grandson--lives with her. She also has a son who just retired from the army, a daughter in California, and a three-year-old granddaughter. Her husband, Melvin Henderson, died some years ago.

"I've had a good life with the college," Henderson says. Her retirement plans include a trip to Disneyland.

In Oberlin and China

Joanne Thodt, administrative assistant in the East Asian studies program, started working for the college in 1981, when "the history department and East Asian studies shared a typewriter on the third floor of Rice," she says. In 1989, after taking "a crash course in Chinese," she helped Professor Vivian Hsu set up the Oberlin-in-China program at Yunnan University in Kunming, spending the semester there (Observer 26 October 1989). "Each morning when I got up I thought I was stepping out into the National Geographic magazine," she says.

"Joanne has been many things to us in East Asian studies: secretary, advisor, mother, helpmate, salvation, and reality check," says professor and acting director of the program Ronald DiCenzo. "She has succeeded admirably in all these roles. We could always count on a very pleasant 'Hello' every morning, immediate and efficient implementation of requests, a learned familiarity with Chinese and Japanese that greatly facilitated our pedagogical tasks, articulated concerns about our health and other problems, and a shoulder to cry on--who could possibly ask for more? We will sorely miss her and will look forward to continuing visits even after she has retired, for we're certain that she will feel the need to check up on her nestlings to make sure that we haven't made a mess of things!"

A graduate of George Washington University, Thodt came to Oberlin 32 years ago when her husband, Charles, began working at the National Association of College Stores. He is now retired. The Thodts have recently taken up country-western dancing, and they teach line dancing to senior citizens in Russia Township Hall. Joanne Thodt is a member of the Mansfield Muzzleloader Rifle Club, where she shoots in competitions. In Oberlin she belongs to Sorosis and the Oberlin Forum. She designs and sews needlepoint pictures of houses, and she has been a Welcome Wagon hostess for 30 years. The Thodts have three children and two granddaughters.


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