In this post we recognize Carol Quenneville, Vehicle Fleet Coordinator in Facilities Services for her 25 years of service to Middlebury. Carol shares how her career and family have changed (and grown) over the years, as well as some of her favorite activities at Middlebury. Read on to learn more about a dedicated mom and employee, and get the inside scoop on the best place to watch the sun rise on campus.

What did you do prior to work at Middlebury College and where were you located?

Prior to Middlebury College, a family member and I operated a small Mom and Pop store/gas station in Whiting (it was called Quennevilles’ Store). In that 5 year time span I had my two sons. If they were not with me at the store, they were with their dad on the dairy farms.

What job titles have you held while working at Middlebury?

I was hired to work in the Purchasing Department. Along with the purchasing part of the job I was in charge of the College vehicle rental fleet. A few years ago the Purchasing Department restructured and I was transferred to Facilities. The transition consisted of being Vehicle Fleet Coordinator, along with clerical assistance for Custodial, and back up for the Facilities Control Desk.

Take us back to your first year as an employee at the College. What were the most significant things happening in your life outside of work then?

Raising two young boys and living on a dairy farm were the things in my life at the time that kept me really busy.

View of the surrounding farm land in Addison County

What are the most significant things happening in your life outside of work now (that you’d like to share)?

My husband retired from dairy farming. After taking the time to build our new home, he now works at Middlebury College. I am enjoying my expanding family. My oldest son is married and my first granddaughter is due at the end of March. My youngest son is engaged, and we are very happy to welcome his fiancée to our family.

Have your interests/hobbies/athletic endeavors changed over the past 25 years? Have any of these been influenced by your work at the College or due to your association with others who work here?

I enjoy the College fitness center. I like to keep active and Middlebury College is a great place to do this, from the athletic facilities, to just walking across the beautiful campus.

What are your plans for the next 25 years?

I look forward to retirement within the next 8 to 10 years to have time to enjoy my family and friends.

The Middlebury Panther has one of the best vantage points on campus to watch the sun rise.

Do you have a favorite place on campus?

I have enjoyed many early mornings at the Alumni Stadium while either running the steps or just walking or running the cross country trail and stopping there to see the sunrise.

In this post we recognize Leger Grindon, Professor of Film and Media Culture for his 25 years of service to Middlebury. Leger shares information about his projects in the past, present and future, his experiences of becoming a part of the Middlebury community, and the role that tennis plays in it all. Continue on to learn how Leger has viewed his time at Middlebury as a father and teacher, as well as his wise words of advice to those new to Middlebury.

What did you do prior to work at Middlebury College and where were you located?

I was living in New York City and working as the academic coordinator in the Cinema Studies Department at New York University.  I did adjunct, part-time teaching at various colleges around the New York metropolitan area in the evenings.

What job titles have you held while working at Middlebury?

Assistant, Associate and Full Professor; Program Director and Department Chair

Take us back to your first year as an employee at the College. What were the most significant things happening in your life outside of work then?

Adjusting to small town life and the long Vermont winter

What are the most significant things happening in your life outside of work now (that you’d like to share)?

Since my daughter graduated from Bard College in 2011 and moved to New York City I have been travelling to New York City more often.  I went to the NYC Ballet 3 times last year.  I’ve intensified my exercise program and I’m trying to meditate more frequently.

Have your interests/hobbies/athletic endeavors changed over the past 25 years? Have any of these been influenced by your work at the College or due to your association with others who work here?

I have played tennis at the college for 25 years with faculty & staff colleagues, students and other players in the community.  I have continued to watch movies both as part of my teaching and scholarship and for recreation 

What is your fondest memory or experience that you’ve had while working at Middlebury?

Raising my daughter Blake. 

I was very pleased to earn tenure in 1995.  In 2011 I published two books, Hollywood Romantic Comedy and Knockout:  the Boxer and Boxing in American Cinema.  Both these works were long term projects and it was personally gratifying to complete them & rather surprising that they actually appeared in print at almost the same time even though Knockout was written before Romantic Comedy.

Many people change jobs/careers multiple times in their working life. Something must have kept you here for 25 years. Is it anything that you can put into words?

Middlebury College is a fine place to work and an excellent employer.

What are your plans for the next 25 years?

I have a number of articles in the works and I expect to write one more book before I retire.  I have a few options I’m considering and my direction will probably be influenced by what publishers want.

I’d like to work on my backhand and finally be able to hit a serve with pronation.

Film class in Axinn

Do you have a favorite place on campus?

I’m very fond of my office at 214 Axinn; the theater class room in 232 Axinn; the tennis courts in the Nelson arena

If you could give one piece of advice to a new employee at Middlebury, what would it be?

Cultivate friendships among the faculty and staff outside your particular department or work area.  Use the library, gymnasium and other fabulous facilities the college makes available to us.  Bicycle to campus and around the community wherever the roads are free of ice and the temperature is above freezing.  Attend the film screenings, music programs, the art museum the lectures and fully participate in other activities on campus

Is there anything else that you would like to share about your time at Middlebury?

I am very grateful to have had Middlebury College for an employer.  I love my job.  The students are strong, my colleagues stimulating and supportive, we have a genial staff eager and ready to serve, the administration runs the college very well .  In a world that is sometimes cruel and heartless, I’ve been treated remarkably well.  No doubt I don’t completely deserve my good fortune, but I have tried to serve the college as they have served me, with dedication and respect.  I hope I have contributed in my role to the success of the institution.

In this post we recognize David Bain, Senior Lecturer in English and American Literatures for his 25 years of service to Middlebury. David shares how his career as a writer and editor brought him to Middlebury,  his memories of the friends and colleagues that he’s met here, as well as his plans for the future. “Wonderment” is just one way that David has described his time at Middlebury, read on to learn more about Midd from David’s point of view.

What did you do prior to work at Middlebury College and where were you located?

I was a full time writer in New York City for ten years, and before that an editor in publishing houses. My involvement with the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference began, though, in 1980 with a fellowship, and continued on the faculty every summer thereafter, and that built a connection with Middlebury. My wife and I decided to relocate to the Champlain Valley, bought a farmhouse in Shoreham in April ‘87, and then serendipitously found jobs here, me in the English Department on a one-year replacement contract.

Bread Loaf campus in Ripton, Vermont

What job titles have you held while working at Middlebury?

Lecturer, and then Senior Lecturer.

Take us back to your first year as an employee at the College. What were the most significant things happening in your life outside of work then?

During my first year, 1987-88, we started a family (our first child, a daughter, was born in Oct. ’88; then our son, in Mar. ’92). When not teaching, I was writing two books—one on the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, one on the transcontinental railroad.

What are the most significant things happening in your life outside of work now (that you’d like to share)?

Writing and publishing continues, thank goodness, now edging into the e-book world. Music is an equal passion (as it’s been my whole life)—performing solo at 51 Main regularly, and in several bands all over Vermont. I recently marked ten years as a single parent (my wife, Mary Smyth Duffy, formerly of Chellis House, died in Sept. 2002), and I’m still very much involved in the day-to-day parenting of my two children, now in their early 20s.

What is your fondest memory or experience that you’ve had while working at Middlebury?

The community – students, faculty, staff—has been such a mainstay, and such a fount of inspiration and fulfillment and gratification. I can only produce a montage to answer your question: my little girl humming and dancing around the May Pole, my little son flailing and careering across the arena ice in a Winter show; a line of smiling friends and colleagues stretching far past the McCullough door waiting for me to sign their copies of the Bicentennial History; a line of concerned and loving friends and colleagues stretching out onto the porch of Sanderson funeral home after Mary died; lunches in the Proctor faculty lunchroom, Holiday party swing dancing, friends giving talks or readings in Starr’s old Abernethy room or in Mead Chapel; Bread Loaf in August at the Writers’ Conference or in September at the year’s first faculty meeting, when we regroup; the Chellis dedication and the Hillcrest Environmental dedication; the light in my students’ faces.

Many people change jobs/careers multiple times in their working life. Something must have kept you here for 25 years. Is it anything that you can put into words?

Community.

What are your plans for the next 25 years?

Write, teach, play music, paddle kayaks, see new places, know new people.

Do you have a favorite place on campus?

Today’s Abernethy Room in the Axinn Center, and the rocky hillside outcropping between Gifford and Monroe Halls.

Is there any person on campus (or retiree, former employer) that mentored you, or you feel helped you grow into your job, grow to enjoy your work and your time at the College?

Bob Pack and Sandy Martin hired me because of Bread Loaf and my professional background in editing, publishing, and writing, but they were taking a gamble, of course. Nick Clifford was always kind, and John McCardell was unfailingly supportive, as was Ron Liebowitz. Special friends—Karl Lindholm, Brett Millier, Paul Monod, Jan Albers, I could produce such a list—some of you teach and some of you keep the place from falling down or grinding to a halt, and really, you all know who you are, and your friendship has enriched my days.

Instructor and students, on the lawn between Mead Chapel and Hepburn Hall.

If you could give one piece of advice to a new employee at Middlebury, what would it be?

Meet, know, befriend, and learn from everyone here regardless of what they do, and be kind to the next newcomers.

Is there anything else that you would like to share about your time at Middlebury?

Just my sense of gratitude and wonderment.