One of OCU’s longest-working employees retired this summer.
Ruth Sutter, former director of housekeeping, retired after 44 years working at OCU. Sutter worked with the housekeeping staff to keep all campus buildings clean, provide setups for events and manage on-campus recycling.
Sutter said she enjoyed interacting with students and faculty, as well as watching the campus grow and change over time.
“When I first started working there, the only athletics we had were men’s basketball and tennis,” she said. “I’ve just watched the campus grow and grow, the buildings and everything. It’s just been an amazing 44 years to watch it.”
Sutter officially retired July 31, and her position was filled by Nahum Villalovos, who will manage the same crew that Sutter had. But Sutter said she’ll continue to help the housekeeping staff when she can.
Sutter also said a big reason for her retirement was to take care of her mother in Arkansas.
“I wanted to retire while I could still enjoy life and be able to go to Arkansas and see my mom. She’s in hospice care, so I want to be available for her if she needs me,” she said. “It was just time. It wasn’t an easy decision, but we all have to retire at some point.”
Sutter started working at OCU in 1974, and she has the second-longest record for time spent working at the university, behind Florence Birdwell, music professor. Sutter spent her first 10 years working for OCU itself, then switched to ABM Engineering, an outside contractor for the university, for 25 years. After this, she came back to OCU for two years and helped develop SchoolDude, a program students use to schedule organization events or request maintenance on their rooms.
Sutter switched employment in 2009 from OCU to WFF Services, OCU’s current contractor, so she could manage the contracts. WFF Services is based in St. Louis but manages other Oklahoman colleges like Oklahoma City Community College, Oklahoma Christian University in Oklahoma City, Rose State College in Midwest City, the University of Tulsa; and University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond.
Despite this, Sutter said she always felt like a part of OCU rather than someone working outside of it.
“It’s kind of like a family up there,” she said. “Even though we were an outside contractor, we were treated as part of OCU.”
Sutter said she has a variety of memories from the university, including her wedding in 1978 in Bishop W. Angie Smith Chapel, planting a tree on the north side of Gold Star Memorial Building as a favor for former first lady Brenda McDaniel, and her experiences with Abe Lemons, former head basketball coach and namesake of the Abe Lemons Arena.
“When I was expecting my daughter, Abe Lemons would tell the basketball players when I would walk through, ‘there goes Ruth, taking another basketball,’” she said.
Lindsay Steinberg, acting senior and Cokesbury resident assistant, said housekeeping does an impressive job at maintaining campus cleanliness.
“I think they do a really nice job of cleaning the rooms,” Steinberg said. “Especially my freshman year, when I moved in, I was shook at how nice the apartment looked. I was in Methodist, but I was like, ‘this is a freshman apartment? What? This is insane.’”
Sutter said the most important part of her job at the university is being able to enjoy the people there.
“You have to like people,” she said. “You have to engage with the students, and you’ll know right away if that’s the place for you.”
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