Vicky Vosburgh grew up on a Genoa dairy farm with notions of becoming a teacher.
“We had cows and chickens, mostly, and we had ponies, too,” says Vosburgh, an alumna of Genoa-Kingston High School who still lives in her DeKalb County hometown. “We raised vegetables, and we sold them at a vegetable stand.”
Although the classroom career didn’t come, she eventually surrounded herself with future teachers – along with future kinesiologists and athletic trainers – as administrative aide for the NIU Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education.
Following nearly 18 months of juggling her regular duties in Anderson Hall with additional responsibilities for the Department of Leadership, Educational Psychology and Foundations, Vosburgh is now ready to retire.
“I started in KNPE,” she says proudly, “and I’m leaving in KNPE.”
Her Valentine’s Day 1995 arrival on campus came a bit unexpectedly, however.
She had worked for two decades in Genoa at a small grocery store, known first as Bob’s Royal Blue and later as Gene’s Market, where she hired cashiers and baggers, managed payroll and prepared taxes.
Upon leaving Gene’s, she wasn’t looking for anything full time but applied and tested at NIU “on a whim.”
By the time she arrived back home from that appointment, her children told her of a message on the answering machine: “ ‘It’s from Northern. They want you to come in and interview tomorrow.’ I thought they were joking. I said, ‘Yeah, right.’ And they said, ‘No, really. Listen.’ ”
The call was from Karen Garland, who held the position Vosburgh would inherit.
Garland did indeed want to meet the next day, but Vosburgh already had plans. They booked for the day after that – and so began Vosburgh’s second chapter of nearly 27 years.
“Northern’s been a good place for me to work,” she says. “I know lots of people who work on campus, and they just move around all the time. I don’t like to change jobs that much, as you can see. I’ve really only had two jobs. I worked 20 years at my job before I came here, and I’ve been here since 1995.”
Vosburgh began as an extra-help trainee. She quickly impressed her supervisors, who asked if she would like to stay in the position permanently.
“I said, ‘Well, I’m not used to not seeing my kids play their sporting events, and I still have a son in eighth-grade, and I’m not willing to give that up.’ And they said, ‘We’ll work around that, and we’ll figure that out.’ ”
Her role in KNPE – and, since July 2020, in LEPF – has included budgeting, scheduling and hiring. She’s also been in charge of inventory and building work orders.
Vosburgh has loved the job, especially the students, faculty and staff.
“KNPE is just a wonderful place to work. The people are wonderful. It’s a good environment, and this department has been very good to me. When my husband, Bill, passed away October first of 2012, and when he was sick for a year and a half, they were very flexible with me during that time, and I appreciated that so much,” she says.
“Our students are interactive,” she adds, “and coming from a retail job, I was always interactive with people, so I really like the interaction we have with our students in this department. I mean, you get to know them by name. I have a candy dish out, and a lot of them stop in and take a piece of candy every now and then. They’re always really nice and ask, ‘Do you care if I take a piece of candy?’ ”
Retirement will provide Vosburgh with plenty of time for interaction with her family.
Her five married children, 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren – “When my granddaughter told me that I was going to be a great-grandmother, I said, ‘Well, I’ve always been a great grandmother,’ and she just laughed.” – are all within 45 minutes of Genoa.
Two of her grandchildren – Logan Riley and Julia Vosburgh – play baseball and softball at Elgin Community College and Lincoln College, respectively. Both of their teams are scheduled to compete in Myrtle Beach tournaments in March, and Grandma Vicky is excited to take her seat in the cheering section and in the condo she’s already rented for the entire month.
Meanwhile, her four brothers and two sisters also live in close proximity, with the farthest in downstate Bloomington.
Vosburgh also will continue celebrating “Thirsty Thursdays” with her sister, Cindy. It’s something they started during COVID, she says.
“It was hard for me, having lost my husband and being by myself all the time,” she says. “We get together every Thursday night, and one of us will cook. We just go to each other’s houses and be outside, just sit and have a good time.”
Her fitness-minded faculty in KNPE, meanwhile, can rest assured that Vosburgh has no intention of becoming a couch potato.
“I’m a member of the new fitness center – the Northwestern Medicine fitness center on Bethany Road – and right now I swim. I try to swim four to five times a week,” she says, “but it’s hard to get to the machines between work and trying to swim that much, so I want to be able to get to the gym at least two hours a day, five days a week.”
