My name is Barbara Tonry and I'm the Varsity Gymnastic Coach
here at Yale University.
My name is Susan Burdick
I'm the Circulation Manager here at the Yale Divinity Library.
My name is Jacob Thomson Jr.
I'm a Security Guard at the Drama School.
Hi, my name is Stephen Young, I'm a Rare Book Catalog Librarian
for the Beinecke Library.
I am Francine Georges. I am the Human Resources Generalist for Yale Athletics
and I have been here for 45 years.
45 years...
45 years ago...
[upbeat music]
When we started the gymnastic program,
which my husband started when women were admitted,
It was amazing that the women really weren't gymnasts
but they loved the sport. One of the first goals was to win the Ivy League
Championship which we did. We were the first team ever to win it in 1977
and we were the first women's team at Yale that ever won an Ivy League
Championship. And we just won our 15th Ivy League Championship,
it's so exciting I can't even begin to explain.
This gym had all the men's and women's equipment set up.
We confiscated a wrestling mat that had been thrown out in the garbage.
One long mat and that was it. And then when we started getting some
women's equipment in, we had to run from the office and vault.
That was before we were able to compete down in the amphitheater for basketball as it's tournaments.
So we have gone from men and women in one small area with an old
beat-up wrestling mat, to what we have now and more equipment down on the fifth floor,
more equipment up here and we have equipment where we compete, so it's like
unbelievable where we've come from to where we are now.
I have fun every day.
They're very entertaining. Sometimes they're exasperating, but they're just fun to be
around. I just take advantage of everything around you,
mainly the students, they're what makes everything here,
and enjoy them. Get to know them, they are all different and they're all wonderful
And every year it gets better.
Are you all warmed up?
yeah!
Ok lets get going...
When I started at Sterling what we did was type headings
on the catalog cards so it was mostly like just being in a workshop and
you just type, type, type... and then I tiptoed up to Forestry and got a job
there, and I loved the Forestry students. They were grounded, they were worldly
they did so many different things and they traveled to countries and I actually
ran a Telex operation for the Forestry School way before email.
Faculty and everything would come and I'd be in the library doing a telex operation to send
messages to, to our people that were over, over in different countries and things so.
But then I came over here to Divinity, a long time ago now and the Divinity
students, they are very driven, they're sort of like Law students but in a
different way and they're very... they're very sweet.
Well, I went to high school right here in New Haven
at St. Mary's High School now closed, and our principal would
get on the microphone every morning and say "remember girls, work works wonders"
and that has carried me through college and I've always said that to people I
know when they're having a hard time. Remember work works wonders.
If somebody is doing their job and doing it well and
working hard at it you're going to spread out and
help people and and make your job worthwhile and
make their experience here at Yale worthwhile.
I do security work for the University. I have several buildings
that I used to take care of. The Drama School was my main building
and the Repertory Theater and the Studios Theater and we had the Cabaret
at 217 Park Street. I used to have to go in and check on the
students and make sure everything is going okay. And a lot of the time the
students have to go from building to building and I don't want them to walk by their self,
so I ask them if it's is okay that I could come walk with them, because some of the kids
being in a rehearsal hall or class 10 or 11 o'clock at night and I usually ask if it's
okay for me to walk them home or near to their apartment, so they
can be okay and they're always good for that..and that's why I love this School
but I know so many people that been on TV and grown famous and they still
remember me right now. I have pictures on my wall autographed, out of the famous stars
that went through and every time I turn that TV on whether its "Law and Order" or anything,
I always see somebody that went through the School that I know.
Most of my career at Yale I've been a rare-book cataloger of printed materials, not manuscripts and
that's what I am now. Well every day I'm seeing different things that are of
interest to me for various reasons or that spark a new interest
that I never knew I had.
Yale is very strong in early printed books.
We have quite a collection of incunabula, the earliest printed books
and I did many of those over the years. The materials range from the whole
printed history of mankind, basically.
Two rules that I pass on to my fellow catalogers...are
"catalog boldly" and "it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission".
I grew up here in Athletics, you know, moving from New York
basically when I was about 19 years old. There was a lot of experiences I had
here, I met a lot of different people, got involved in martial arts, working here in
the gym I competed in Judo National Championships and so there was
so many different experiences I would have never had
if I didn't come here to New Haven and to Yale.
You know one of the first people I met here in Athletics was
Anita Kerreri, she was the Director of the gym at the time and she ended up
being somebody that I developed a lasting friendship with and was actually
my maid of honor.
It's been an interesting experience
because I have worked in so many different departments within Athletics
and for coaches, administrators, physical education instructors... so it's been a
very diverse experience.
[bulldog enters and yaps]
Ahhhh... This is a surprise !!
This is my buddy Walter. We spend a lot of time together don't we Walter?
We've been bonding since he was first brought into the department
as a puppy. You often have to call downstairs and see if he's accepting
visitors you know, or if he's taking a nap, so... you know...
[laughs]
[music]