By Alyssa Hollingsworth
IV Leader staff, March 19, 2009
After 30 years of being with Illinois Valley Community
College, Bob Marshall is retiring.
For Marshall, graduation will be one of the duties he
remembers the most.
Marshall stated, “One of my responsibilities is to plan and
direct the annual Commencement. It is always an exhilarating evening, seeing so
many students cross the stage earning their degrees and certificates and
witnessing their pride and that of their family and friends. This year, my last,
will be my 31st Commencement. So in a way, I’ve had 31 ‘best memories.’
“One year during the Commencement we were experiencing a
terrific thunderstorm. One particular lightning strike knocked out our lights
for about five or 10 minutes. As we sat there in the dark, our invited speaker,
former IVCC President the late Earl Torbaugh, kept right on delivering his
address to the graduates. Evidently he had memorized his speech because he did
not miss a beat!”
Marshall was hired in 1979 as Director of Admissions and
Records. In 1996, Marshall was named Dean of Student Development and Vice
President for Student Services in 1997. Before coming to IVCC, Marshall began at
Triton College in 1973 as a Veteran’s Advisor. In his second year there, he was
a counselor working in the Admissions Department as a recruiter and working with
high school relations.
He then began working for William Rainey Harper College in
Palatine as assistant director of Admissions and Records. Maryland’s Montgomery
College in Germantown was the last place Marshall worked before voyaging home to
Ottawa and working for IVCC in 1979.
Marshall said that the thing he is going to miss most about
IVCC are “the many wonderful people I have worked with here over the decades.”
With his time off, Marshall plans a trip to Ireland and
England in September. He will also be golfing, reading and exercising.