Retirements, outstanding service and milestones highlight annual employee celebration
Dedicated service to the campus community took center stage during Hanover College’s end-of-year employee celebration. More than 40 faculty and staff members were recognized during the event, held May 18 in the Withrow Activities Center.
The 90-minute program celebrated the careers of five retiring employees and service milestones for 41 employees. Milestones are recognized in five-year increments and this year’s honorees ranged from 16 employees celebrating five years at Hanover to Professor of English Dee Goertz marking her 35th year on campus.
The five retirees – with more than 150 years of combined service to the College – included: Melissa Eden (professor of English); Kate Johnson (professor of philosophy); Steve Jobe (professor of English); John Todd (associate director of facilities); and Lynn Todd (payroll manager).
The Totten Award for Outstanding Service was presented to five active members of the campus community. The honor, started in 2007, salutes service above and beyond normal job responsibilities. The annual award pays tribute to Stanley Totten, professor emeritus of geology, who taught at Hanover for 40 years and has served as an educator, mentor and volunteer since 1962.
Recipients of the 2026 Totten Award include: Cori Collinsworth (head softball coach), Sara Harding Crafton ’04 (director of counseling services), Eric Dodge (professor of economics), Barbara Sims (director of enrollment management) and Garnet Tipton (director of graduate student services).
Hero image above features retiring employees (l-r): John Todd, Lynn Todd, Kate Johnson and Steve Jobe. Not pictured: Melissa Eden.
Previous Totten Award recipients:
2025: Kate Johnson, Katy Lowe Schneider ’93, Jennifer Setser, Jim Watts
2024: Heather Pace Buhr ’95, Jim Hickerson ’78, Lynn Nichols Hall ’82, Jeff Phillips, Holly Sipe, Bill Tereshko
2023: Casey Roseberry Heckler ’00, Megan Hizey, Molly Totten Jones ’86, Andrew Pretorius, John Todd
2022: Uschi Appelt, Pam Brown, Steve Graves, Chris Hitchcock ’97, Mary Phillips, Reiley Noe, J. Michael Raley, Bob Slade, Sue Fryback Tilley ’89, Lynn Todd, Kerry Volansky
2019: Steve Brown, Lindsay Rainey Faulstick ’07, Aarik Gault, Steve Steiner
2018: Tony Carlton, Katie Linville, Jan Spry
2017: John Collins, Christian Hanson, David Harden, Patricia Lawrence
2016: Joe Lackner, Tony Osterman, Darrin Rubino
2015: Lori Hedges ’06, Rick Lostutter, Dan Murphy ’81
2014: Dominique Battles, Rhonda Burch, Miryam Criado, Dawn Houze, Debbie Kroger, Ed Walters, Chris Wilcox
2013: Darleen Connolly, Gus McQueary, Sara Patterson, Debbie Quinn, Pat Schuring, Sarah Vosmeier
2012: Caleb Gosnell ’07, Lyn Lyon, Kay Stokes
2011: Kevin Brown, Carter Cloyd, Doug Denne, Ron Wells, Dave Collier
2010: Ken Bevis, Summer Hawkins, Betsy Milligan Johnson ’70, Michael McMahon, Brian White
2009: Victoria Bramwell, John Jones, Celeste Hartman Sutter ’85, Ruth Turner ’73
2008: Terry Lewis, Josh Payne, Michelle Rubino, Nasrin Shahinpoor, Treva Shelton
2007: Erin Amerson, Celia Dollmeyer, Pat Dunn
