"Go-to guy" to be honored for 40 years on the job

When Garry Rolland began working at Tulane University in the summer of 1974, a lot of things were different than they are now — he played intramural flag football in Tulane Stadium and the downtown campus had yet to add facilities like the J. Bennett Johnson building. But the one thing that Rolland says hasn"t changed is the quality of people he"s worked with during his four-decade career.

“From the day that I got here, Tulane has always been a great environment to work in,” says Rolland, a supervisor in the storeroom and shop in the Department of Materials Management at the health sciences campus in downtown New Orleans. “The people here have always been great, and that"s what keeps me going, that"s what makes the job enjoyable.”

Rolland will be honored for his 40 years of service to the university during one of five employee recognition events honoring employees who celebrated milestone anniversaries in 2014, which will be held on Tulane campuses on March 30–April 1. Employees who marked five years of service are being invited to ice cream socials, while those who marked milestones of 10 years to 45 years of service will be honored at luncheons.

Asked to sum up his time here, Rolland says that the job has posed its share of challenges, but overcoming those obstacles has been very rewarding.

“As time has gone on, I"ve found, more and more, that I"m a go-to guy,” Rolland says. “People come to me to draw on my experience, and that"s something that I"m really proud of.”

It makes sense that Rolland would be valued for his experience as he"s spent his entire time at Tulane in the same department. He started out as a delivery man in what was then the purchasing department and moved up into a supervisory role after 10 years. Rolland says his decades in the department came into play when everyone needed to step up to get the university rolling following Hurricane Katrina.

“I"m the type of individual that likes to stand in the background until I"m needed,” Rolland says. “And then I"m ready to step up.”