A Legacy of Laughter

After 29 years, director of personnel will retire this month

Several years ago, when personnel’s Carol Gold explained to a colleague that her new title was “acting director,” the colleague responded by asking Gold, “What play are you directing?” While humorous, that comment set the tone for an exceptional career that has resulted in many curtain calls for the retiring director.

Her route to the community college was a circuitous one that began in her home town of Morristown, New Jersey. From there Gold traveled to Northwestern University in Illinois where she graduated with a degree in English. In 1970, she moved to Rhode Island and worked for Brown University as a secretary in the biophysics department. And from 1972 to 1974, she attended Simmons College in Boston and received her master’s degree in library science.

Fortunately for CCRI, library jobs were in scarce supply in the mid 70’s, and to pay the bills, Gold signed on with a temporary employment agency that sent her to the college on June 14, 1976 as a temporary secretary in the personnel department. Gold was hired as a full-time employee on August 1, 1976, and over the next several years served in a number of positions within personnel. In 1994, she became acting director, with the full title coming a year later. One of the first to congratulate her was maintenance worker Mary Dickinson, who told her that she would meet many new friends in her new position as director.

“I didn’t understand the depth of Mary’s words until many years later when I realized just how important CCRI had become to me,” Gold said. “CCRI not only gave me the opportunity to advance my career, but it provided me an extended family as well.” One of her closest co-workers was former vice president of Business Affairs Bob Henderson who mentored Gold throughout her career. Gold recently spoke of their relationship; “Bob was very important to me. He was approachable, always offered sound advice, and never once in all our years together did he ever fail to make me feel appreciated.”

There have been vast changes in the college throughout Gold’s career, with CCRI growing from approximately 9,000 students on two campuses in 1976 to more than 16,000 students on three campuses and several satellites in 2005. There have been other changes as well.

“Regulations and new mandates have grown substantially over the past several years, requiring a much more complex human resource function,” Gold said. “In addition, union relations have become much more sophisticated as well.”

Current labor projections indicate that employees entering today’s workplace can expect to work for 7 to 10 companies over their careers. That phenomenon is now having an impact on CCRI which historically has been a place where employees spent their entire careers.

“Today, the intensity of the attachment to the college and the historical perspective of new employees is far different, and many of them look at their work here as just a stepping stone in their careers,” Gold said. “That’s one of the key reasons why we need to focus on enhanced training and greater professional development opportunities for our employees.”

Drawing on the adage of “behind every successful woman….” Gold is quick to credit her success to her staff. “The staff has been spectacular, and I couldn’t have picked a finer group of people to work with,” Gold said. “They work so hard and have taught me so much.”

Not much will change in Gold’s life when she leaves her office at the end of April. She will continue to live in the state and you’ll be able to find her every Monday evening working as a reference librarian at the Warwick campus. She’s also exploring the idea of teaching English composition, something she did at CCRI several years ago. In any event, Carol Lynn Gold will leave a lasting impression for a job well done.