PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 25, No. 9, Nov. 3, 2005

Staff members recognized for long service and retirement

Recently retired and long-serving staff employees will be honored at the 2005 Staff Service Recognition Program Nov. 7 in the Illini Union Rooms A, B and C.

The program will honor 191 employees who retired between Sept. 1, 2004, and Aug. 31, 2005. In addition, employees will be honored for service completed during that time: 123 employees who completed 25 years, 33 who completed 30 years, seven who completed 35 years, and two who completed 40 years of service with the university.

A Web site for the Staff Service Recognition Program is available through the Personnel Services Office home page at www.pso.uiuc.edu/service. Retirees and service honorees are listed alphabetically by name, department or number of years served.

For more information about this year’s program, call 333-3101.

Buenting goes back to school during retirement

By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor
217-244-1072; slforres@illinois.edu

Click photo to enlarge Photo byL. Brian Stauffer Back in school Diane Buenting, who retired from the UI on May 31, is working temporarily as a teacher’s aide at Gifford Grade School, where she helps students with reading and math and monitors the lunch room and playground. During her 31 years on campus, Buenting especially enjoyed working with students and leapt at the opportunity to work with young people again.

As some retirees find out, they need not worry about finding things to do when they leave their jobs, because family members, neighbors and others know they’re no longer working and eagerly seek them out with pleas for help with all sorts of projects.

And so it was for Diane Buenting, who retired from the UI on May 31 as an administrative aide in the Graduate College.

After 31 years on campus, “I was really looking forward to retirement,” Buenting said. “I’ve been really blessed to have had a great time during my tenure at the university, but I also felt like it was time that I did something else.”

During the first few weeks that Buenting was enjoying her eagerly anticipated free time, the phone kept ringing with people asking her to help out here or there – and she happily filled in when she could, such as when the secretary at her church, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Gifford, was on vacation.

But when the phone kept ringing, and ringing, Buenting soon became more concerned about over-committing herself than about having too much time on her hands, at least during the summer months, when the property that she and her husband, Earl, a database administrator at Administrative Information Technology Services, own at the edge of Gifford kept her busy with mowing and landscaping.

However, with autumn coming and outdoor work starting to taper off, Buenting said she began to wonder what she would do during the winter months, aside from refinishing woodwork and painting inside their house, two of the things that were on her wintertime to-do list. But a phone call from the principal at Gifford Grade School – who asked if she would fill in temporarily as a teacher’s aide – took care of that.

After visiting the school one day to observe classes, Buenting was hooked, and now for five hours each day she works with third-, fourth- and fifth-graders, helping students with reading and math, grading papers, and monitoring the lunch room and the playground.
“They are good kids and just so smart and eager to learn,” Buenting said. “I’m happy to have an opportunity to influence some young minds in a small way. It’s just really fun.”

Working with young people was one of Buenting’s favorite parts of her job at the university too, she said. Buenting was a clerk-stenographer III in the unit that was then-called correspondence courses, now called Guided Individual Study, when she began working on campus in Illini Hall during June 1975. A promotion to secretary to the director of Continuing Education and Public Service (which later became the Office of Continuing Education) brought added responsibilities working with the department’s budget and handling human resource matters – tasks that would become the mainstays of Buenting’s responsibilities throughout her career. And Buenting enjoyed the challenges to learn and grow professionally, but in June 2003 accepted a position in the Fellowship Office of the Graduate College and moved to Coble Hall.

“I wanted to go back to working with the students,” Buenting said. “For me, that’s what the university is all about.”

Ironically, Buenting said she only agreed to test for clerical jobs at the UI’s Urbana campus when a peer in the secretarial program at Danville Area Community College during the mid-1970s asked her to go along. At the time, Buenting had no idea that not only would she be accepting a job at the university but also she would spend her career there.

In retirement, Buenting is devoting more of her time as a hospice volunteer and to church activities, such as serving on the congregation’s Care Committee, visiting parishioners whose ill health keeps them from attending worship services.

“I always said I would give back to the community in some way or another when I retired,” Buenting said. “I just really enjoy being in the community. I enjoy the young and the more mature and the social interaction.”

During June, the Buentings were on the road a lot – traveling to a family wedding in Nashville, Tenn., to a church conference in North Dakota and to New York City. In July they took their travel trailer to Wisconsin Dells and camped with friends.

But, as they did when both of them were working on campus, the Buentings also like to get away without straying very far from home. They sometimes take their trailer to campgrounds in Rantoul and Mahomet that are just a short commute to Champaign-Urbana, although only one of them has to make the trip to work there nowadays.

Davis begins second career as grill chef

By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor
217-244-1072; slforres@illinois.edu

Click photo to enlarge Photo by L. Brian Stauffer What's cooking? Gwenda Davis, a member of the Coach’s Cooking Team catering company, prepares for hungry football fans outside Memorial Stadium. Davis, who retired on June 1 after a 30-year career at the UI, and the team also compete in barbecue cook-offs, including the Super Bowl of barbecue contests, the American Royal Barbecue Competition at Kansas City, Mo., where they earned a perfect score but placed third last year.

If football fans leave Memorial Stadium hungry for more, don’t blame UI retiree Gwen Davis. Davis and other members of “Coach’s Cooking Team” keep the fans well fed, especially if they love barbecued pork. The team operates three concession stands at the stadium, selling hundreds of slow-roasted pork chops on a stick and country-link sausages (made of ground pork with Hembrough’s signature spices). They also serve pulled pork and various side dishes at the Champaign County Fair and recently catered a wedding with 500 guests in Monticello.

The business name is derived from leader Gary Hembrough’s previous line of work as a football coach. Hembrough and Davis, who are neighbors in west Champaign, have been cooking together informally for years and cooking for football fans and other customers for about five years. Their culinary interests complement one another: Hembrough focuses on barbecued meats and Davis specializes in desserts.

Davis’ apple caramel cake, prepared over indirect heat on a Weber grill, claimed fourth prize in the dessert division at the second annual Central Illinois Bragging Rights Barbeque Cookoff in Arcola on Oct. 8, where they were one of 50 professional teams who competed for more than $8,000 in prizes.

At the end of September, the team also competed in the American Royal Barbecue Competition at the Kansas City Royal, in Kansas City, Mo., where Davis’ carrot cake earned a 22nd place. Last year, her German chocolate cake placed third. The American Royal competition is an extravaganza that attracts amateur and professional cooks from around the world and is arguably the Super Bowl of competitions for grill chefs. Coach’s Cooking Team was among the 500 teams that competed, preparing a variety of dishes on site, including an assortment of roasted meats – including pulled pork, sausages and brisket – baked beans, stuffed potatoes and a stir-fried dish.

When Davis isn’t tending the grill, she is tending her yard and garden, growing flowers and canning the produce she harvests. She also reads mysteries – authors Michael Crichton and James Patterson are her favorites – and enjoys sewing and embroidery.

A mother of two, Davis also is a grandmother of three and cared for her 9- and 12-year-old grandchildren during the summer.

Since Davis’ retirement on June 1, her constant companion is Max, her elderly yellow Labrador retriever, who has lost his eyesight and consequently sometimes gets “lost” inside the house.

“He’ll stand somewhere and bark until I say ‘I’m over here, Max,’ and then he’ll follow the sound of my voice to where I am,” Davis said.

Davis began working at the UI in May 1975, shortly after moving to Champaign, and spent her entire career in Student Affairs, where she was the administrative aide to William Riley, now interim vice chancellor for student affairs and dean of students, and handled the budget and human resources issues. During Davis’ 30-year career, she worked with three different accounting systems, the most recent being SCT Banner.

“We had different kinds of things happening all the time,” Davis said. “You never knew what the day was going to bring you. I enjoyed the people, especially the students. The best part was seeing the students grow into wonderful adults while they were here, and I loved keeping in contact with them.”

Although initially apprehensive about retiring because she was concerned about having too much time on her hands, Davis said she has adjusted well “and now my time is filled with all kinds of things.”

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