By Meredith Sell | Echo
Forty-eight years ago, the Taylor Dining Commons looked very different.
Different, meaning it didn't exist. All meals were served in the current Student Union, what Director of Food Services Jerry Nelson, 63, calls "the dome."
"Cottage cheese would be in a dish, and your cole slaw or your tossed salad. And it wouldn't be two or three of them-you could just take one," Jerry said. "Then your entree and your potato and your vegetable and one dessert."
The dining service had one permanent serving line and four drink options: milk, "bug juice," tea and coffee. Dinners were served family-style, with the dishes of food set on the tables.
"My mother actually worked here in the food service," Jerry said. "She came home one day in '65 and said, 'They're hiring high school kids.' . . . So I walked in here and applied."
Jerry's first duties were sweeping and mopping floors, but eventually he worked himself into the position of grill cook. He worked in that position through the January 1972 transition from the Union to today's DC. Not long after, he was promoted to assistant director, met and married his wife, Jo Ellen, and, in 1980, he was promoted to director.
Jerry's Taylor experience runs the gamut, from great to horrible: He and his family have been Penthouse's wing hook-up for 12 years; he has dealt with pranks in the DC ranging from a Volkswagon parked in front of the conveyor belt to a pyramid of tables, and he was the first person to learn of the 2006 van accident.
Jerry handles everything with a servant's heart, something he has developed through his work in the food industry, or "the hospitality industry," as he calls it.
"If you don't have a servant's heart in the hospitality business, it's not successful for you," Jerry said.
One winter, Jerry heard that Arthur Hodson, whom the DC is named for, needed help with Christmas dinner. Nelle, Arthur's wife, was on oxygen, and they weren't able to go to their son's house for Christmas.
Arthur was at a loss of what to do. Jerry stepped in and offered to bring them Christmas dinner.
"I knew exactly what their favorite stuff was," Jerry said.
When Jerry and his family arrived with the food, the Hodsons were decked out for the holidays: Nelle in a red dress, Arthur in a three-piece suit with a red tie.
"We served the meal," Jerry said, "and when he walked us to the door . . . tears were in his eyes, just to say 'thank you.'"
When Jerry's at the DC, he keeps his office door open. Anyone can stop in to talk or ask questions-and he enjoys it when students do.
"One student . . . said this, 'Jerry, you're on the same level we're on,'" Jerry said, "which made me feel like they don't look at me as being 63 years old. They look at me as being one of them."
Jerry doesn't remember every student, but many students remember him and approach him in airports or cities and ask if he worked in the DC.
"One time, we were in Florida and we were in Disney World, and here come about 27 kids . . . all hollering, 'Hey, Jerry. Hey, Jerry. Hey, Jerry," he said, laughing and shaking his head. "It's like, these people are going to think I'm famous, when I'm not!"
Over the years, Jerry has housed students and helped students with tuition. Every time he's reached out, he's encouraged those he helps to do the same for others.
On the job, Jerry is just as generous.
"I will never ask my employees to do anything that I wouldn't do myself," he said. "Never. And believe you me, I've done every job there is."
Jerry's been director for more than 30 years, but his favorite part of food service is still cooking.
"I enjoy rolling up my sleeves and working with the employees in the production end of it. I love to cook."
Jerry won't be with Taylor much longer. The 48-year university employee is retiring on June 1, after a two-week vacation beginning on graduation day. He and his wife are moving to Roann, Ind., into a historic home they've owned for three years.
"We're looking forward to spending time with the family and getting things done up there," Jerry said. "Then I'll probably look for a new adventure in my life."
Jerry is taking his servant's heart with him.
"Our home up there-it was a home built by a wealthy man," Jerry said. "He didn't have a lot of people in it, but we've opened it up. We've entertained people from Taylor in it already. We've opened it to the public . . . so it's the same. (The servant's heart) is something that is very important to me."
