Retirement beckoning life for SCC’s Stansbury

By RAY WYCHE
StaffW riter

In her job at Southeastern Community College, Brenda Stansbury has welcomed three chief executives and two interim presidents to their new posts at the institution.

Stansbury is finishing up a 36-year career with the college on the last day of the month. Her last position was that of executive assistant to the college president, and she says her days of welcoming and helping orient new chief executives are coming to an end.

“I don’t anticipate another will come before I leave,” she says.

The three new presidents she greeted were newcomers to the campus and it was Stansbury’s job, first of all, to acquaint them with the layout of buildings.

“I knew what needed to be done,” she says of her orientation of her new bosses, to get the incoming presidents familiar with their new surroundings.

“I hope I helped them make the transition,” she adds.

Stansbury was on hand to show the office to Steve Scott, Brantley Briley and the current chief of the college, Kathy Matlock. But come June 30 she’ll no longer have to keep the president’s appointment schedule up to date, arrange presidential trips, prepare information packets and serve as recording secretary for the board of trustees, and at times be a buffer between the college chief and students or citizens whose problems could be better handled by other people.

“I tactfully re-direct them,” she says of the sometimes irate visitors.

As executive assistant, Stansbury’s desk is the first stopping place for people who have business with the college president. In addition, she handles the normal secretarial duties of the office.

Before moving into the presidential suite, Stansbury worked with the college academic dean, dean of instruction and with the vice president for finance before becoming the executive assistant to the president in 1992.

The native and current resident of Clarkton has watched Southeastern grow through the years from the vantage point of being in the middle of the college administrations that directed this growth.

“I grew up with Southeastern. This has been my life for 36 years,” she says.

Stansbury’s duty are varied. She keeps the college trustees up to date and helps arrange activities for visiting college and other officials. These duties are in addition to her work in handling the president’s correspondence.

Southeastern has a tradition of honoring notable visitors with a reception, and Stansbury played a part in her early years in the president’s office in setting up these affairs. College retirees usually attend these events.

“Any time we have anything like this, we always invite all our retirees. It’s always nice when they come back” she says.

After the end of the month, she’ll be a guest at these functions rather than a hostess.

“I’m really looking forward to that,” she says.

Retirement for Stansbury doesn’t mean a rocking chair and doing nothing.

“I’ve got plenty to do in retirement,” she says. “I love to garden and to play golf. I plan to spend more time at the beach with my two granddaughters (ages 4 and 8) who live at Sunset Beach. I love to garden on a small scale but now maybe I’ll garden on a larger scale. I was raised on a farm.”

Her husband Charlie retired several years ago and Stansbury says the couple plans to do some traveling.

“I’m looking forward to all that,” she says.
Though a resident of Bladen County, she plans to spend more time at Land-O-Lakes golf course northwest of Whiteville.

Stansbury realizes retirement will be a big change but says that she can adjust to it.

“The college has been a big part of my life for a long time,” she says. She adds that her career has been rewarding and says she expects retirement to be just as fulfilling.

“I don’t have any regrets.”

This is the second in a series of articles on the retirements of four Southeastern Community College employees whose service to the college totals 130 years.