PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 20, No. 8, Oct. 19, 2000

On the Job: Gloria Sax

Becky Mabry, Assistant Editor
(217) 244-1072; mabry@illinois.edu

Photo by Bill Wiegand Gloria Sax has been administrative secretary to the head of the department of animal sciences for four years. She started at the UI nearly six years ago after getting out of the hectic surety-bond industry.

JOB: Gloria Sax has been administrative secretary to Robert Easter, head of the department of animal sciences, for four years. She started at the UI nearly six years ago after working in the hectic surety-bond industry in Chicago for 20 years. She is single, has a home with large perennial gardens in Champaign, and is a devoted volunteer to several organizations.

You started at the UI in microbiology. Why did you move to the department of animal sciences?
I love animals. My mother was raised on a farm, so I thought this might be an interesting job. And it is. I love it. It’s nice to be in an environment where other people also love animals. And the people in this department are very pleasant to work with.

What’s your background?
In my last job … I was a surety bond manager in Chicago. When I started in 1974 it was fun, but when the economy changed, the industry changed and it wasn’t fun anymore. And also during that time, my dad was dying of cancer. People would come to me with their surety bond problems like they were life-and-death situations, and then I’d go home and see my dad, and I’d think, ‘this is ridiculous.’ I put things in perspective and decided not to do it anymore.

I loved gardening so I thought maybe I should go into horticulture. I went to Joliet Junior College and got an associate’s degree in horticulture. That was in 1994. I was going through a divorce and so I was kind of in transition, so I moved here to work on a four-year degree. But I started taking chemistry classes, and I decided horticulture should just be a hobby.

What do you do with your free time?
Well, I like to garden still and another hobby I have is stained glass. Probably the major thing I do is foster kittens for the Humane Society. I started out with a litter at a time and this last spring I started taking more. I’ve had about 20 foster kittens at a time since spring. I’m finally down to 13. And they’re in addition to my own six cats.

They’re all in the house?
Yes, but my fosters don’t run loose. I have them in my spare bedroom in [large] individual cages so they have lots of room to run. In the morning and at night I clean their cages and feed, water and medicate them and change their litter boxes.

Why do you do foster kittens?
If you love cats, what could be better than having little kittens all the time? And there’s a real need for foster homes.

I heard you’re also an Illinois Radio Reader
[a local reading service for visually impaired].
Yes, I’ve done that for about two years. It’s a very simple thing. Basically I go and sit in a little room with a tape recorder and read articles from local newspapers. I do that during my lunch every Thursday.

Do you do other volunteer work?
Hospice. I started out as a regular hospice volunteer, where I’d have a patient assigned to me, and I would do whatever the patient or the family needed.

And then they started a grieving children’s support group about four years ago. I took the training and became a facilitator in the children’s group. They have those sessions usually in the fall and spring. It’s an eight-week program, once a week for an hour. We have different activities, like they make a collage that reminds them of the person who died. The children also plan a memorial service because quite often the children don’t have any input at the time of the funeral, and in the seventh week they have the memorial service and can invite whomever they want.

You must have a pretty big heart.
Well, I don’t think of myself that way. I don’t have children so maybe I just need to get some nurturing and caregiving out of my system. And the people I’ve met through the shelter and hospice – the families and the fellow volunteers — are really wonderful people.

What does it take to be a good secretary?
I find it really helpful to me that I have a varied background. I think it has given me the information and confidence and ability to try to figure out what should be done in certain situations and act on it

What is the best part of this job?
The best part of is that I never wake up and groan because I have to go to work. I always look forward to coming here. And for the most part I don’t take it home with me. And while I’m here I enjoy it – I enjoy the people, the work, the environment and the attitude.