Jean Lepro, our office manager at church for the last 16 years, will be retiring in July. There will be a basket in the niche through July 3 were you can leave cards, memories and gifts of gratitude for Jean. We will have an open house at church on her last day – Friday, July 8 – from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. when folks can stop by and wish her will. She has been an incredible presence in the life of Memorial and we surely will miss her.
Jean has been here through two settled pastors – Bonnie and Phil –student pastors, associate pastors and a variety of other staff changes. When she arrived in 2000, she was still creating mailing labels on a typewriter and she had to go into the finance room to check email since she could not get that on her computer. She had a monthly crew sort newsletters for mailing – Mary Ellen and Jim Tetzlaff, Nancy and John Hilliard, Phoebe Maloney, Loma Klossner – and she had to fold the weekly bulletins by hand.
Over the years, she gracefully adapted to changing staff and changing technology. She survived the construction of the Music Room, then the Youth Room and the remodeling of the kitchen. The weirdest day? Coming one morning to find water flowing out of the furnace room and the Christian Ed room after the sprinkler system malfunctioned and began flooding the building.
Through it all, Jean has been a dependable, gracious and warm presence in our congregation. We will miss her greatly but we wish her and Brian well as they begin the next phase of their lives.