By By Steve Gillespie / staff writer
May 15, 2002
Five teachers retiring from Meridian Community College this year were celebrated and honored Tuesday during a reception in the Dulaney room of the college's Webb Center.
Administrators and colleagues said goodbye to Linda Barham, science instructor; Wanda Dixon, math teacher and head of MCC's Math and Science Department; Fleeta Mills, nursing instructor; Mary Sanders, nursing instructor; and Sue Shoffiett, English instructor.
Collectively, the retirees have given 112 years of service to MCC.
Each retiree received a framed poster featuring a collage of pictures from throughout their careers, lifetime passes to MCC athletic events and lifetime passes to the college's Arts and Letters series.
Barham, of Meridian, is a former teacher at Lamar School and will return as a science teacher there beginning next school year. She said she expects she will be teaching the grandchildren of students she taught before.
Dixon and her husband, Richard, who also is an MCC retiree, plan to travel. They will head to North Carolina this summer and have planned a long trip out West this fall.
Mills, of Meridian, is wasting no time seeing the world with her new freedom. She and her friend, Judy Crowson, are leaving this summer for a nine-day bike journey through Nova Scotia.
Mills also has planned a trip to Italy for November and she will continue to work part-time in the Intensive Care Unit at Riley Hospital. Her other spare time is often used to go camping with her grandchildren.
Sanders, a resident of Kemper County, said she will be spending the first part of her retirement working in her yard and around her house. She said she also plans to work part-time as a nurse practitioner.
Shoffiett, of Meridian, is planning a trip to New York to visit her daughter, Jill Shoffiett, who is an artist. Shoffiett says her greatest achievement is her daughter.
Also recognized at the reception was Joyce Frank, a retiring member of MCC's board of trustees who has served two terms. She was presented with a plaque by MCC President Scott Elliott.