Dining Services worker has Held the hearts of many
Mary Ann Held was looking through the paper for a night job one evening. Her husband worked days and they had two children at home, and Held wanted to help out. On Sept. 6, 1976, she found an ad for a job at Concordia, and the rest was history.
Since then, she has worked in every department of Dining Services involving the Normandy, Grant and the new Knutson center, before finally settling on the Meals on Wheels program. After 33 years on campus, Held is retiring this year.
Held has been involved with the MOW program for about eight years now, and she likes working with people who are more or less her age since it’s easier to relate to them.
“I’m not old, though,” she said. “Just 74. That’s a kid yet.”
Emil Heckman, a chef in Dining Services, has known Held since 1994 when they worked in Grant together. They worked in the same shifts, Heckman as the morning cook and Held as the worker in the salad bar, and every day Heckman would drive her to and from work since her house was on his way to Concordia.
Heckman even got to know her kids, and Held would show him pictures of when her kids got married and when the grandchildren would visit.
“She’s just a nice lady,” he said. “She says how it is. She’s willing to help anybody. It’s hard for me to think that she’s not going to be here. That’s 15 years that I’ve been here and she’s been here every day.”
Heckman said there are so many stories that he has about Held, he couldn’t pick a favorite. He also mentioned with a smile that every student has a Mary Ann story, and there are too many stories about her to regale.
“I’m gonna miss her,” he said. “I can’t say how good she is. She’s a gal that’s always been there.”
Vanessa Berg, Held’s supervisor; Paul Dosch, assistant director of DS; Lisa Graham, Residential Dining Supervisor; and Heckman all agree Held is a friendly person who will be missed a lot. Held imagines her home life to be pretty quiet in comparison to DS life, and she has mixed feelings on that since she gets along with so many people here in the busy environment.
“I don’t look for me to stay quiet for very long,” she said. “I really think I’m very active, I feel, so I just have to think of what to do.”
Held said she won’t really miss the winter weather mixed with traveling once the wind and snow start blowing everywhere.
“I won’t miss getting up the morning when it’s 30 below or when I have to call security to come get me in the storm,” she said. “I can say ‘I’m staying in today.’”
Held thinks DS might be a little bit of a quieter place with her gone, but she maintains the positive attitude that she has always been known for having.
“When I come to work, I’m just happy to be here so I come in and we’re always chatting back and forth and telling jokes,” she said. “You can be upset in one way but to me the only way I’ll be upset is if someone is sick. But as far as the attitude, the students make it what I am. You can get mad, but does it help?”
She said people make mistakes but they can always be fixed, so she sees no reason to holler or yell at people. She also likes to make students feel at home if they’re far away, especially by using her drawer full of candy for her student workers and other cooks.
She said some people have called her perfect, but she has a rebuttal for that.
“I haven’t started walking on water yet,” she said with a laugh.
Berg has known Held for two and a half years. Berg said there have been a few times her and Held have shared experiences from their personal lives, and for Berg, those times have connected them as friends more than anything else.
“We’re a few generations apart, so it’s nice to connect like that,” she said.
Berg also said that Held is pleasant to work with because of her positive demeanor, which has an impact on those people around her.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen her crabby,” Berg said. “If other people are crabby, she can usually cheer them up.”
Since Held has been working at Concordia for over 30 years, Berg said she is like a part of the institution, and it’ll be different once Held is gone next year.
“She’s just a nice lady,” she said. “Everyone will miss her and her personality.”
Dosch has known Held for 10 years. According to him, Held is nice, outgoing and a “real peach.”
“She’s everyone’s mother and grandmother,” he said. “She’s never negative and she always puts a smile on someone’s face.”
Held keeps her own list of employee birthdays so she knows when everyone’s big day is, and she always has a greeting for them and a card.
“And she has her candy drawer,” Dosch said. “She’s always got a little ray of sunshine for everyone.”
Dosch said her presence on and off campus will definitely be missed since she’s the face of the MOW program and has a good relationship with the other volunteers who come each day.
“She just has such a positive impact on the community’s perception of the college because she’s so outgoing and friendly,” he said. “There’ll be a lot of tears around here when she leaves.”
Graham worked with Held for the ’05-’06 school year. Graham helped Held with the MOW program by bagging 20-40 loaves of bread each shift and canning fruit servings.
“She’s very kind and caring,” Graham said, “and she’s an older lady that acts like a younger lady. She’s always going, never gonna stop.”
Graham said she and a few other DS employees thought Held was joking when they first heard about her retirement, so she said they’d also be surprised if Held didn’t show up every once and while next year.
