At first glance, the knick-knacks and memorabilia in your colleague’s office may seem insignificant. Take a second look, however, and these collections may reveal insight into your coworker’s personality and interests.
Dawn C. Wisniew’s office, in Neill 113, speaks of her interest in competitive Scrabble®.
Wisniew’s love for the game began in May 2003 after she read “Word Freak,” the story of a sports writer who began playing Scrabble® competitively.
Since then, Wisniew, an administrative manager for the mathematics department, has competed in Scrabble® tournaments in Calgary, Canada; Portland, Ore.; and Seattle. In fact, she has played up to 37 games in five days. Her next tournament is scheduled for March 27-28 in Portland.
Although Wisniew initially thought of Scrabble® as just a word game, she now considers it similar in strategy to chess.
“After I began playing in tournaments, I quickly realized Scrabble® is a multi-faceted game of words, spatial relationships, statistical analysis and strategy,” she said.
Walk into her office and you will see paraphernalia including personalized deluxe Scrabble® game boards, dictionaries, puzzle books, a Scrabble® day calendar, a key chain that folds out into a game board with miniature letter tiles, letter tile bags, Scrabble® board covers, and the National Scrabble Association newsletter.
Anyone interested in playing competitively is invited to join the Pullman Scrabble® club, Wisniew said. The club meets at 6 p.m. on Tuesdays at the Cougar Depot Visitor Center.
On the wall
The walls of French Ad 240 spark lively conversation thanks to the addition of Michele L. Beckmann’s quilts.
Beckmann, an office assistant for multicultural student services, started displaying her quilts in the Sponsored Programs office in 2001 when she brought a few in for her husband who worked there.
“When I tried to take them down to enter them in the fair, people began commenting on how much they liked and appreciated having my quilts around as decorations,” Beckmann said.
Since she began quilting six years ago, Beckmann has gone from doubtful of her creative abilities to purely passionate.
“I used to think I could never do it,” she said. “Now I just love the joy of creation and watching the quilt come to life — each piece of fabric and thread has its own personality.”
Each quilt takes approximately six to eight hours to create, depending on the size and technique used, Beckmann said.
Pieces of science history
In Fulmer 305, the chemistry office boasts a mishmash of oddities displayed in worn wooden bookcases.
Gracie Levi began collecting and preserving old pieces of science equipment about 10 years ago when she was the chemistry department receptionist, said Gary P. Johnson, a scientific instructional technician supervisor.
“Professors would retire, and they would leave the oddest things lying around the back corners of their office,” Johnson said. “Gracie would simply collect the pieces and put them in the display cases for people to enjoy.”
The collection includes a World War II vacuum tube, lecture notes from the 1940s, a dusty metal art projector from the 1920s, a 1915 comparometer used to determine the concentration of colored liquids, a rusty 1940s cork borer, and many other unique chemistry artifacts.
Johnson’s favorite part of the collection is a set of cardboard canisters from the 1920s and 30s that were used to ship chemicals.
“Some of these canisters still remain unopened,” Johnson said. “It’s interesting because chemicals would never be shipped like that today.”
Pennants
Leann S. Hibbard’s office in French Ad 342 provides a glimpse into WSU’s past.Two 1946 pennants from her father hang on her walls, remnants of a time when war kept people like her dad from completing their degrees at WSU, so they could go home and work to provide for their families.
Although he did not graduate from WSU, he and Hibbard’s mother donated money to the university, and attended at least one home football game each year for almost 15 years, Hibbard said.
Hibbard initially kept the pennants in a cedar chest at home, but she put them up in her office two years ago in remembrance of her father.
“People often stop and comment about how odd the pennants look in comparison to today’s WSU paraphernalia,” Hibbard said.
In 1946, WSU was still the State College of Washington, and the emblem was a portrait of George Washington, rather than the WSU Cougar insignia that is widely used today.
So, as you walk through offices on campus, consider the collections you see and maybe use them as an opener for a conversation to learn the story behind them and a fellow worker.
