I worked in the facilities department at Bentley for 29 years before retiring in August. Even in the beginning, it felt kind of like home. Both my dad and my uncle worked at Bentley in custodial. In 1987 I started working alongside them until a couple of years later when I got a job working with the grounds crew.

In my years working on the grounds, I saw both the university and my department change so much. The campus of course continued getting larger and larger, with new buildings going up. Naturally, our department grew too. When I started there were 11 of us, and we got up to 14 in the department before I retired. The way we did our work changed as well. We used to work as a complete team — focusing on specific areas of campus all together, as a unit. But for the last 10 years or so, we’ve each been assigned our own area to be responsible for.

Snow removal was tough. The phone could ring at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. and you’d have to get in as soon as possible and make the campus safe.

On a typical day, our hours were 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The first hour of the day or so, we’d go around and make sure there wasn’t trash on the ground. The rest of the day was spent taking care of our assigned areas. In the summertime, that meant cutting grass and weed whacking and blowing, making sure everything was clean. In the fall, of course, the focus was getting rid of leaves. In the wintertime, we took care of the snow and also pruning when there wasn’t snow on the ground. The spring was all about getting the grounds mulched and edged and ready for graduation.

Some of our biggest challenges came in the winter. Sometimes you’d have major snowstorms and we’d work overnight, around the clock, and still have to put in our regular hours the following day. Snow removal was tough. The phone could ring at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. and you’d have to get in as soon as possible and make the campus safe.

We had a different kind of challenge getting ready for Commencement. In the weeks leading up to graduation, that deadline was always hanging over us. We had to step it up a little more to get the place ready and immaculate for the big day. But we were always proud of that day, just to step back and look at what we did and how beautiful the campus looked.

It was those challenges that made our team, the facilities team, so close. No matter what the season, we all had the same goal to achieve. After all the hours we spent together, we were almost like second family. I miss some of them already.

Don LeBlanc is a retired grounds foreperson.