An Employee Recognition luncheon on May 15th honors five BMCC staffers representing nearly a century-and-a-half of service to the college
Wendell Readous was doing roofing work on a downtown Manhattan office building in the early 1980s when he noticed a large, open lot on Chambers Street. “I didn’t realize I’d be spending most of my working life there,” he says. “It was the future site of BMCC.”
An assistant principal custodial supervisor in the college’s Building and Grounds department, Readous is one of five veterans to be feted at a luncheon ceremony at BMCC’s Richard Harris Terrace on Employee Recognition Day. The May 15 event, hosted by the Office of Human Resources, honors BMCC civil service and classified staff personnel who have amassed at least 20 years of service. The others are Isabel Reina Planas (CUNY office assistant – English Department); Rosa Hughley (CUNY office assistant – Mathematics Department); Jose Carrasquillo (Coordinator, BMCC print shop); and Mary Cheatham (senior custodial supervisor, Buildings and Grounds).
Readous began his BMCC career in 1982 when the college was still housed in a West 51st Street office building. “We moved downtown a few months after I arrived,” he recalls. “The place was still under construction, with plywood walkways everywhere.” After a quarter-century on the job, Readous says, he’d do it all over again: “I talk to my counterparts at other CUNY colleges and, from what I hear, BMCC is the place to be.”
“A second home”
Isabel Planas first came to BMCC as a student. In 1987 she was hired as a college assistant in the mathematics department. Later, she moved to the admissions office and, in 1993, to the English department, where she is a CUNY office assistant. While the then-and-now differences are striking, she says, “BMCC has always been a very friendly place – and a second home to me.” After completing her studies at BMCC, Planas went on to City College, where she earned a bachelors degree. “I’m still thinking that I might like to pursue a masters in education,” she says.
Family connection
Mary Cheatham, who retired recently as senior supervisor, Buildings and Grounds, has also been a firsthand witness to dramatic change at BMCC during her 27 years here. “Obviously, it’s much busier place, with a lot more students,” she says. But, like Planas, she has always felt part of a large, nurturing family. “It’s hard not to,” she says. “After all, you spend more waking time here than you do at home.”
