By Linda S. Mah
Kalamazoo Gazette
KALAMAZOO (AP) - Betty Kocher's career at Western Michigan University has spanned every WMU president except for Dwight Waldo, the university's first president.
She will be retiring at the end of 2015, after 35 years in her most recent position as the secretary for the board of trustees.
"I've worked with 46 different trustees over the years and all of the presidents except for Dr. Waldo," Kocher, 82, told the Kalamazoo Gazette.
She says she thinks she's worked for the university for 42 years, but it's hard to trace the exact dates because she started at WMU before it had its own payroll department, when things like that were still handled by the state.
She moved to Kalamazoo in 1957, when her husband Bruce came to Western to earn his undergraduate degree.
When she began working at WMU in the graduate college, Paul Sangren was president. Then, she was the dorm director for Shilling Hall when James Miller was president.
She left for 20 years to raise her family, sons Michael, who is now head of a foundation in Switzerland and Tom, who is a real estate agent in Kalamazoo. She came back to work with the board under the leadership of John Bernhard and worked with every president since then, including participating in the presidential searches for the next four presidents: Diether Haenicke, Elson Floyd, Judith Bailey and current president John Dunn.
"I've always told Dr. Dunn that as soon as I saw his résumé, I knew right then and there it was going to be him, because we share a birthday," Kocher said.
She said she's enjoyed working with each president and with every trustee that has served under her watch.
"They're very easy to work with," she said. It could be that she's very easy to work with. Her motto for any of their requests is, "That's not a problem. That's what I go by."
Kocher is one half of a duo that has served students in Kalamazoo for an almost nine decades of combined service. Her husband Bruce Kocher worked for Kalamazoo Valley Community College from the time the school opened in 1966 until he retired two years ago.
The WMU Board of Trustees honored Kocher with a luncheon and by renaming the WMU Board Office as the Betty Kocher Board of Trustees Office. It is located on the second floor of the Bernhard Center.
"It's been a good job and I'll miss it," she said, "but it's time to go."
Published: Mon, Jan 04, 2016
