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May 2003

Retirement pulls 10 away from a campus they helped to create

Robert Siudzinski of Special Education, Helon Evans of Human Resources, Carol Ann Boyles of Career Services, Jo Mobley of Career Services and Andrew Farkas of the Library have each spent more than 30 years at UNF and will retire this summer.

By Amy Parmelee, Staff Writer

"When a professor retires, there goes a library."

Dr. Gary Harmon was reminded of that saying after talking about his 32 years at UNF and upcoming retirement. Come the end of June, the University will lose not only Harmon as a "library," but also nine other founding faculty and staff members, including Andrew Farkas, who led the creation of UNF's Carpenter Library collection.

Inside UNF profiled almost 60 founding members still on campus for UNF's 25th anniversary in 1997. In the fall, about 30 will return.

Betty Flinchum, who also will retire from International Programs, hopes the University will keep the founding members in mind. "The collective wisdom of founding faculty here is extraordinary," she said.

Carol Ann Boyles

Students in cooperative education and career development have benefited from the work of Carol Ann Boyles, the founding director of Cooperative Education and Placement in 1972 and, later, the director for the Center for Experiential Learning and Institutional Testing.

Boyles said one of the major changes has been the move toward a more traditional university with the admission of freshmen and sophomores in 1984.

Boyles will retire as associate director of Career Services. She has seen the department grow to the point where it has liaisons with each college to provide more in-depth assistance to students.

"I hope the University will maintain its personal, caring attitude," she said. She also hopes the University will "achieve its mission to become an institution of national consequence."Boyles will continue to help people learn job and life skills as the volunteer director of Jacksonville Christian Women's Job Corps Inc.

Larry Davis

Larry Davis started as an engineer in March 1972 and had the opportunity to see the University take shape.

"I used to come out and inspect the construction," he said as he recalled having to take a jeep to visit the site. St. Johns Bluff Road was still dirt, and wild deer and turkey roamed freely.

Davis enjoyed those construction visits, and he used his appreciation of nature and his engineering skills to create a nationally recognized handicap-accessible boardwalk through the nature trails.

Now director of communication services, Davis is in charge of the phone and postal systems on campus. His communication with co-workers is something he treasures.

"I think I established good friendships with the entire University community, and it's something I really feel good about," he said.

Davis plans to spend the first year of his retirement relaxing, seeing family, joining a fitness program at UNF and golfing.

Helon Evans

For the last several years, faculty and staff retiring from the University passed through Helon Evans' office to learn about their benefits. Now, after almost 33 years, Evans is retiring.

Evans started in September 1970 as a secretary in Human Resources. She moved into different areas before returning to Human Resources in 1985. She is now assistant director for benefits and payroll.

In addition to spending time with her family, Evans would like to help start a retirees' group. Human Resources has discussed the idea, but time for the project never materialized.

"I think it would be good for those of us retiring and good for the University," she said.

Evans, who received her degree in business administration from UNF in 1987, said she enjoys working in education. She also marveled at the technological advances on campus.

"I worked at a time when we had typewriters and carbon copies," she said.

Andrew Farkas

Andrew Farkas was the 14th person hired at UNF and has the longest uninterrupted service, starting May 4, 1970. He was given the mandate to have 100,000 fully cataloged books on the shelves on opening day. On Oct. 2, 1972, Farkas and his staff proved they could do the impossible.

"The professional literature of the time said it took four years to assemble a library of 50,000 volumes," Farkas said. "The library staff did twice that in one-half the time."

Today, the University has a plan to double the size of the library building, something Farkas expected to see completed in 1996. While he regrets the library is showing its age, he is glad improved facilities are at hand.

Farkas is proud of his staff, whose professionalism has earned the respect of many, evidenced by a national satisfaction survey and notes of thanks.

Of the founding faculty and staff, Farkas said they had an "unprecedented and unequaled enthusiasm."

Betty Flinchum

Betty Flinchum is a founding faculty member of the College of Education and Human Services, starting in August 1972. While she will retire as senior adviser to International Programs, she will return for a year as the Florida West Africa Linkage Institute and international programs in Africa undergo a transition.

Flinchum started the international programs and has been instrumental in increasing UNF's reach around the globe and bringing diversity to the student body.

She is proud of her work in Belize that has resulted in about 200 alumni. She also is happy with the Florida West Africa Linkage Institute.

"My greatest pleasure is when I see those international students in their own countries doing so well," she said. "We change their lives. They come here and get an education, go back and establish themselves in their own countries where they are needed."

Gary Harmon

Dr. Gary Harmon joined UNF in 1971 as the founding chair of Language and Literature. Harmon isn't sitting in his "wonderful cubby hole" office of 31 years waiting for retirement, though.

"I'll finish with a flourish, I hope," he said.

Harmon presented a paper on Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee and his prophecy for American globalization in mid-April. He will wrap up by teaching two of his two favorite courses - Modern American Literature and Film as Literature - in Summer A. This fall, he will take a postponed two-week trip to China to lecture on and discuss American culture and literature at the Beijing Second Foreign Language University.

Harmon said his job is "a magician's feat of helping people understand themselves and their culture in relation to such American phenomena as globalization, race, gender changing, and the environment."

Harmon said some regard him as a caring taskmaster. That view is backed up by the Indiana Jones-style whip students presented to him while studying the mythic action film.

Jo Mobley

Jo Mobley was the second person hired for the College of Education and Human Services in November 1970. She remembers the excitement
as the faculty and staff were hired and created the
college's programs.

"We all worked hard to meet each deadline in order to begin classes on the anticipated date in August 1972," said Mobley, who started in the dean's office as a secretary IV. "During those two years, we were also anxious about our building being ready for those first classes."

Now, 32 years and several positions later, Mobley finds excitement with Career Services.

"It has been great to see a win-win situation between students and employers," Mobley said. "I have seen so much growth in our students after they have been in a co-op position for a few semesters."

Robert Siudzinski

Robert Siudzinski joined the University in August 1972 as the charter chairman of Special Education. The work of the original faculty was rewarded when, just a few years after forming, the program was named one of the top three in the country by state and national organizations.

"For a new program with a hard-working and creative faculty, that was quite an honor," Siudzinski said.

Today, he marvels at how UNF has grown, saying, "with all the new buildings, it is at times difficult to recognize the place."

In recent years, Siudzinski has traveled around the world, particularly to South Africa, teaching the Enneagram, a personality typology. He plans to continue this work with the business and educational communities.

He said his time at UNF "went by in a twinkle of an eye," and his retirement is mixed with sadness at leaving and pride at how much the University has grown.

Gerald Stine

Dr. Gerald Stine has cornered the market when it comes to textbooks on HIV/AIDS. Since he was hired in early 1972 for the biology department, Stine has written 25 books, including 13 college-level books. His other books are on human genetics, biosocial genetics, biology and sexually transmitted diseases.

"I'll be a scholar until the day I die," he said.

Stine will return in the fall as an adjunct to teach his HIV/AIDS course and wants to help teach Jacksonville residents to read.

"I never taught a class in any subject that I really haven't learned something from my students," he said.

Stine acknowledged that many changes, such as growth and administration turnover, have brought difficulties, but they also have allowed the University to bring in more professors and to establish good athletic programs.

As for his time at UNF, Stine said, "It's been a good 30 years, by choice."

Jack Funkhouser of Instructional Communications, who declined an interview, also will retire.