custodians – Houghton STAR

By Anna Catherman ('24)

On July 4, 2024, Rene Stempert will celebrate her 30th year on the job.

“My first day on the job was a paid holiday, so that was kinda cool,” Stempert said.

Stempert started off on that day in July 1994 as a custodian in Gillette Hall. Now, she serves as the lead custodian for Sodexo, who promoted her to the role five years ago.

As lead custodian, there is no “typical” day on the job. Stempert does whatever’s at the top of her to-do list. She trains new hires and cleans guest bedrooms down at the Flats and in the President’s House. She is certified in pool maintenance. In the summer, she maintains all the hard floors on campus, scrubbing between tiles.

Although Stempert’s day-to-day work is primarily keeping campus clean and safe, Stempert views her work not as a chore but as a ministry.

Serving exclusively in Gillette for decades, Stempert made it her mission to learn the names of every girl in Gillette. Some years, she succeeded. She even knows many pets. Stempert recalls a seeing-eye dog named Brownie was the first service animal to live in Gillette with his owner, Elicia.

Now that Stempert’s work covers most of campus, she hasn’t had as close a connection to Gillette residents. But she gets to meet and train more students – up to 40 each semester, plus 3-6 new staff per year.

When students skip work or their performance goes down, Stempert has a heart-to-heart with them. Three times this year, she’s used the parable of talents as a reminder to be faithful in the small tasks. At the end of December last year, she saw a student in Paine who looked like he was depressed and struggling, so she stopped and prayed with him.

Stempert used to struggle a lot with being grumpy and short with people, and explained that she is still working at showing love and kindness.

Working at Houghton has helped Stempert’s faith grow. The first time she shared her faith journey in 2001 was a major turning point for her. She had accepted Christ a decade prior, after a childhood riddled with sexual abuse, a stint in the Air Force and marrying a man who became verbally and emotionally abusive. There were no sudden revelations for Stempert.

“I really wish my faith story had started off more intensely because I continued to make a lot of stupid choices in my life,” Stempert confessed.

But God used moments throughout the years to slowly transform Stempert. Sharing her story was a big one. One that helped her understand what testimony and ministry are.

Stempert strives to put what she’s learned into action. This year, she felt a strong call to invite people to come to her church. Thanks to her initiative, five First Year students are now attending Belfast Free Methodist. ★

“We’re girls in a boy’s world” Kim Lawson, Maintenance Secretary, said as she began a tour of the maintenance building. Lawson and Linda Perry, or as they call themselves “the maintenance moms,” sit behind the front desk and handle the organization of the maintenance department. After the tour Lawson made a call over the radio and before I knew it I was invited into a big, white maintenance van, ready to start my day as a maintenance worker.

“Well I’ve got to be in Gillette because one of my workers called off… again” the driver said. “After we drop you off I’m taking her to the flats” the other woman in the passenger seat said. The van pulled into Gillette, the driver got out, and the new driver said “You can move up front if you want.” Her name is Correne Goodenow.

Maintenance staff RGB Goodenow works as a full-time custodian and her jurisdiction includes guest housing – usually the college flats – the library and half of the Center for the Arts building. Each custodian has their own building(s) and they hire student workers within their areas. Custodians are “supposed to have a daily schedule” she says, but when student workers don’t show up they have to cover their work. According to Goodenow “when things come up, we do them”.

We arrive at the flats and head into a lounge full of towels, cups and soap, used to prepare rooms for the upcoming cross country guests coming that weekend. “Yeah” she said while stuffing a pillow case, “my life is boring, but it’s kind of fun because I’m an introvert.” Goodenow, who is originally from Jamaica, now lives in Rushford with her husband and three-year old daughter and said “There’s not much job-wise very close” so she sought a position at the college. She attended a college with the same atmosphere as Houghton and she “wanted to be in that kind of family again.”

After preparing the rooms we hopped back in the van and went back on campus to vacuum the back stairwell of the library. The van pulled into the Chamberlain parking lot and while scanning the lot for a parking spot, Goodenow said “The benefit of driving a maintenance van is you can park anywhere you want.” As rain drizzled down we ran into the back door of the library. After vacuuming, Goodenow asked, “Have you ever been in the archives?” The archives needed dusting that could have waited, but she went in any way to give a tour. Goodenow pointed out the old typewriter donated hundreds of years ago and shuffled through painting after painting displayed in cases, in awe as she circled the room.

After finishing in the library, Goodenow got another call on her radio. “Oh yeah, on top of all of this, I’m also a certified pool operator” she said. So our next stop was the pool to test the chlorine level. Only a few people on staff are certified to do this test, so she often gets requests that call her up to the pool. After finishing that task it was time to break for lunch and time for Goodenow to pass me on to another worker, this time from the maintenance area. So she gave Frank Eszes a call on the radio.“Well we’re gonna be up on the roof… is that something she’d want to do?” Frank asks over the radio.

Before continuing on to our duties, Frank and I sat in the truck for a few minutes before he asked “So you want to know my life story or something? Well I’m a transplant from California.” Eszes is from Santa Maria, California, and he “transplanted” to Cuba, NY, where he and his wife bought a house. In June 2014, Eszes heard about an opening for a custodial position at Houghton.

According to Eszes, “There’s nothing wrong with being a custodian.” He is a retired fence contractor and has a contractor’s license so he wasn’t getting to do much of what he loved in his custodial work. But after a month and a half of his time at Houghton he got transferred to a maintenance position and gets to do some elements of his previous career in his work. Eszes opens the door to the science building when he said, “I’m also a big motorcycle guy. Here let me show you a picture” as he pulls out his phone to show me a photo of his own motorcycle. Approaching the third floor of the science building, Eszes described that unlike custodial where each worker has their own area to tend to, maintenance workers get assignments that vary each day depending on the order of demands. “We just go places and check things” he said “and we’re always encouraged to, if we see something wrong, to fix it or find someone who can.” He pulled out his clipboard and started looking for room numbers. His job today was to check the air inside the fume hoods in all of the labs.

“Sometimes I like to listen to music when I’m doing a job like this, but I never know if other people want to listen to my kind of music” he said, gesturing toward the few students working at some lab tables. He shrugged and said “I’m kind of old school.”

Eszes likes the people he has met at Houghton and has “no complaints.” He said “Houghton does a good job of providing a nice environment, all the way from professors to custodians to people working in the cafeteria.” Eszes said he has had positive experiences with students and because the maintenance department doesn’t have many student workers, he only interacts with students when he’s out doing jobs around campus. “I haven’t met one student I don’t like. Although because I’m an adult, some people don’t talk to me” he said with a chuckle and elbow nudge. “They might complain because I yak too much” he said as he scanned his list to mark off another completed task. He smiled and there was silence for a few seconds. “Ooh, let me show you a picture.”