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Registrar’s office loses ‘backbone’

After 26 years of service to the University of La Verne, Vera Hoover (left) will retire. She worked in the Registrar’s Office as an academic records analyst. Peggy Purcell worked with Hoover in the Registrar’s Office for 13 years. Hoover was a student at La Verne College and lived in Miller Hall. She came to La Verne as a freshman in 1947 and graduated in 1951. Hoover met her husband Bob Hoover at La Verne and the two were married after graduation. To start her retirement Hoover took a cruise up the Mississippi River, starting in St. Louis and ending in St. Paul, Minn. Hoover’s farewell reception was held Oct. 11 in the President’s Dining Room. / photo by Reina Santa Cruz
After 26 years of service to the University of La Verne, Vera Hoover (left) will retire. She worked in the Registrar’s Office as an academic records analyst. Peggy Purcell worked with Hoover in the Registrar’s Office for 13 years. Hoover was a student at La Verne College and lived in Miller Hall. She came to La Verne as a freshman in 1947 and graduated in 1951. Hoover met her husband Bob Hoover at La Verne and the two were married after graduation. To start her retirement Hoover took a cruise up the Mississippi River, starting in St. Louis and ending in St. Paul, Minn. Hoover’s farewell reception was held Oct. 11 in the President’s Dining Room. / photo by Reina Santa Cruz

Nila Priyambodo
News Editor

After 26 years of working in the registrar’s office at the University of La Verne, Academic Records Analyst Vera Hoover is retiring.

Hoover, a ULV alumna, who began working part-time at ULV in 1978, will not be working at ULV as of today.

But before Hoover retired, a farewell reception for her was held on Monday in the President’s Dining Room, where many of her friends, family, colleagues and students attended to thank and honor her.

“You can tell how many people love her by the number of people that show up, who have already retired but come to honor her for her retirement,” University President Steve Morgan said.

“She is the backbone of the registrar’s office,” said Morgan, who was one of the speakers at the reception. “ I couldn’t imagine La Verne without Vera.”

Along with Morgan, Associate Registrar Mark McKellip and Registrar Marilyn Davies were speakers at the farewell reception.

“She is one of my most valuable mentors,” McKellip said. “My motto is ‘If Vera does it that way, then that’s the way it is.’”

As a thank you, some of Hoover’s colleagues will be planting a rose bush near Woody Hall in her honor.

Hoover came to ULV in 1947 from Washington State and graduated in 1951. Hoover has seen ULV go through its different changes.

According to Hoover, while she was attending ULV, Stu-Han was portables for married couples and housing for people who came back from the war. In addition, the Campus Times was located near the football field, Miller Hall used to be the dormitories and the basement was where they would eat. Hoover also remembered how the tents, the shower area of the old gym and the theatre were not yet built, but that the Hoover building was being built during her senior year.

Hoover was in several groups and clubs, including Delta Phi Pi (a service organization, which was as close as there was to a sorority), the Washington Club, the Women’s Recreational Association and was senior class officer.

“Back then TV wasn’t very popular, so the students went to on-campus events for entertainment,” Hoover said. “Everyone knew each other very well and when we had our 50 year college reunion, we carried on from where we left off.”

Hoover also continues to stay in touch with her college friends and other ULV alumni. Every Thursday morning for 10 years, Hoover and her friends, which include ULV alumni, meet at the Village Inn on D Street for breakfast to catch up. Furthermore, Hoover just came back from a Mississippi River cruise from St. Louis to St. Paul last week with 75 of her friends, 45 of them graduated from ULV.

“Vera and I are still really close,” said Yvonne Belcher, Hoover’s roommate at ULV who also went on the cruise. “She was in my wedding and I was in hers. That’s how close we are.”

Betty Morris, who has known Hoover since elementary school, is another one of Hoover’s oldest friends.

“Vera is just a true friend and a delight,” Morris said.

Hoover’s friends are not the only ULV alumni in her life. In fact, she met her husband, Bob Hoover, at ULV and her three children also graduated the University.

“We tend to say we’re a ULV family,” Hoover said.

Hoover plans to use the time after she retires to travel and catch up with her family, including her six grandchildren, ranging in age from 2 to 14.

“The thing I’m going to miss the most about ULV is the people,” Hoover said. “I know a lot of people here and I’ve made a lot of contact with the students. These are the ones I will miss.”

Nila Priyambodo can be reached at npriyambodo@ulv.edu.

Nila Priyambodo
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