Growing up in suburban Monona, Wis., Jeanne Johnston thought she’d like to become a teacher.
Life had different plans, of course, and Johnston herself contributed to that when she enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater to study business administration.
And when she met the man who’d become her husband, married him and left college after three years to start a family, a career in education seemed more unlikely than ever.
Until it wasn’t.
“Sycamore is kind of the last place we ended up – about 24 years ago,” Johnston says of a series of job-related relocations with her husband, Bob, “and for the longest time, I was an at-home mom. I didn’t work. I have three kids that I raised. And at the time I was 42, my oldest son had just started college, so I was getting a little antsy, and I wanted to help out a little bit, too. I came to Northern and applied as temporary help.”
That was 1999.
Johnston, an office support specialist in the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education (KNPE) in the role of advising secretary, is now ready to retire.
When Johnston takes that last step Oct. 1, she will close a tenure in the College of Education that involved administrative work with 13 undergraduate majors, six graduate programs, one doctoral degree, 10 minors and three certificates of graduate studies.
“Even as a student, I loved school, but I also loved business. Coming here, working at a university, but in an office, is like I’ve had the best of both worlds. This is my dream job,” she says.
“I’m very organized, and I do like the office. In school, I took all the business classes, and I’ve always liked that. I love working with numbers, and I like making sure that everybody’s OK. I can be ‘the person,’ but I prefer to be behind ‘the person,’ getting everything they need.”
Her service to NIU began in the college as extra help in the Office of Research, Evaluation and Policy Studies; when the position of advising secretary for early childhood education and special education opened a few months later, she applied.
“I remember going in for that very first day – Sharon Wyland was the name of the advisor – and, after that first day, thinking, ‘Oh, I don’t know if I can do this. It sounds like too much.’ And I remember that she sat me down and said, ‘Yes. You can,’ ” Johnston says. “Here I am 22 years later.”
For part of that time, she says, the Huskies she dealt with “were my kids’ ages. My kids had all gone to college, so it was kind of nice for me. I used to warn everybody – and mothering them, too – that, ‘My kids are gone, so I get to take care of you.’ ”
Moving to Anderson Hall in 2014, she has continued to perform what she calls the daily “triage” to make sure students can register for classes each semester.
“Basically,” she says, “it’s whatever comes to the window: ‘What do you need? We’re going to figure it out.’ It’s about getting whatever the kids need to get their classes and their advising appointments and answering their questions: ‘How do I do this? Where do it go?’ It’s mainly taking care of the kids so that they’re good, which I’ve really enjoyed.”
Naturally, she adds, “I also work very closely with the advisors, and I’ve laughed for many years that I think I’ve been training them.”
Joining the staff of her current and final department also allowed Johnston to serve the faculty, a first in her NIU career.
She considers the KNPE team as more than colleagues.
“KNPE is a family. Even if you leave, like the professors who’ve left to retire, you’re still a part of the family, and you still come back,” she says.
“I’ve always been a very patient person, and I’ve learned that you really needed to have that. Even though there are stressful times, I’ve learned how to work through it. I think, ‘Just keep taking one day at a time,’ ” she says. “I tease the professors who are my kids’ ages, all in their 30s and 40s, that I’ve gotten to watch them grow up, which is fun, and so it’s the ‘family and friends’ I’m going to miss the most.”
Retiring on the final Friday of September is by design, she says.
“I love September. The weather! The students are coming back! I love hearing the marching band outside practicing for football. This is my favorite, favorite month,” she says. “Also, this is when we’re getting the kids ready for fall, so I didn’t want to leave the department until everybody was set.”
But set they are, as are Johnston’s plans for life after work.
She’s excited just to stay at or near home – “I love my home. I love my yard,” she says – and to follow her own schedule.
“My husband and I just had our sixth grandchild. I’m busy. I have friends and stuff to do, so I’m good. I just want to do what I want to do when I’m ready to do it,” she says. “My husband probably won’t retire until December, a couple months after me, so we’ll do some traveling or whatever. We’ve got nothing major planned.”
Bob Johnston – said husband of 43 years and boyfriend for three years before that – is Senior Vice President for Corporate Human Resources at Carpenter Contractors of America, Inc., in Belvidere, Ill.
The couple are happy to stay put while living within a 90-minute radius – for now – of their extended family.
Oldest son Jason manages a Trader Joe’s in Oak Park, Ill. He lives in Bloomingdale, Ill. with his wife, Rebecca.
Daughter Jayme works for an early intervention program. She lives in Plainfield, Ill. with her husband, Justin.
Youngest son Jacob is with JPMorgan Chase; although currently living in Chicago, he and his wife, Sarah, are moving later this month to Arizona.
