This year marks an end and ushers in a new beginning for Cheryl Waller as she concludes a 32-year career at Purdue and moves to nearby Benton Central High School to teach Spanish. She’s off to a second career, renewed in vocation and still focused on being an agent of change. Her compassionate, energetic spirit has left an indelible mark, and she’s left behind mighty big shoes to fill. Here’s a look back.

Waller grew up in a rural town an hour north of Purdue, where she graduated from high school in 1974 and within six months started a job at 19 in Purdue’s Memorial Union food service.

“I made $2.10 an hour,” she recalls. “That’s what the rate was in the ’70s, and that was considered an okay salary!”

As one of the young members of the Union’s staff, Waller was considered the “baby”—and when she married her husband, Chuck, her co-workers made her cake and catered the wedding.

She left the Union in 1976 and went to Earhart Hall—an all-girls dormitory at the time—to work for the hall director. And while employed at Earhart, Waller gave birth to the first of her three children.

Waller then worked in the Vet school and in Aeronautics and Astronautics for Henry Yang, whom she kindly refers to as a “character” and a very hard worker. Yang, who is now chancellor at the University of California at Santa Barbara, remembers her well: “She was one of the most diligent and determined persons in the world. She is kind-hearted, and I cherish her collegiality and friendship.”

In 1982, her seventh year at Purdue, Waller joined Materials Engineering as a secretary.

Her task at the time was to assist professors Reinhardt Schuhmann, Jr. (“Schuh”) and Paul Eaton. “Cheryl’s view was to ‘get it done now.’ She was very good at getting faculty to do what they should—an attribute that has served the school well over the years,” says former Materials Engineering head Jerry Liedl. “I remember walking by Cheryl’s office and seeing her with a phone tucked onto her shoulder and typing away like mad—usually from Schumann’s recorded dictation.”

After the school’s move to the MSEE Building in 1988, Waller’s responsibilities expanded. In addition to serving as a mom to her children Brian, Keith, and Max, she also served as a mom to the MSE undergraduate and graduate students, and a number of faculty. Her duties grew to include assisting faculty with their daily operations and helping MSE student organizations plan meetings and social gatherings.

And, over the years, she facilitated the recruitment of many graduate students and faculty. “Our numerous international students fondly remember her for all the assistance she provided in finding them a place in which to live and get settled down at Purdue,” says Alex King, head of the school.

One of Waller’s major contributions was the work she did to prepare award documents for the Alpha Sigma Mu National Honor Society, which resulted in Purdue receiving many awards over the years. And in the last couple of years, she volunteered to help develop and maintain the school’s Web site.

It was in the mid-’90s when Waller decided to add earning a bachelor’s degree to her to-do list—along with maintaining her many responsibilities in the school, running the finances of her family’s business, and managing summer baseball leagues. Her motivation for pursuing a college education at the time was to be able to help her eldest son, Brian, with college math. She had a lot of support from her husband, who did a lot of the cooking and laundry while Waller took classes.

“I’d always wanted to go to college. My boss at the Union tried to talk me into it. Henry Yang also was very supportive—but it was my time in Materials when I took most of my classes,” Waller says. “I started learning from scratch. When you do that 30 years after high school, your brain is like, ‘I don’t want to do that.’ I didn’t really know what I was in for. I just started taking classes.”

When she’d have trouble with a math or science class, she’d bring in food—the key to any student’s heart— and graduate students Kim Blackman (BSMSE ’94) and Ryan Roeder (BSMSE ’94, PhD ’99) would help her over lunch or after work. “Some of these students are like my kids, and they’ve become brothers and sisters to my sons,” she says with affection.

Her work paid off. Waller graduated in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in Spanish education.

It’s hard to imagine the thoughts spinning through the mind of someone leaving after 30-plus years at one place. Excitement? Uncertainty?

“I’m a little scared about the move,” Waller admits. “But, it’ll be nice to say that I’ve had two careers. These folks in Materials are family. I think I have to move on, though.”

Perhaps Liedl said it best when he recently likened Cheryl’s departure to a weather warning: “I see this new change in Cheryl’s life as just one more challenge that she is undertaking, and I wish her well. Watch out, Benton Central! You probably don’t know the tornado coming your way!”

With her trademark smile, Waller jokes, “Everybody says they’re going to miss you, but behind my back they’re probably saying, ‘Get out of here, you’ve been here too long!’”

Lee Lamb with Keith Bowman