Margaret Messer is the mother of the Honors College in many, many ways, said the dean of the Honors College.

Messer, the director of Honors Student Affairs, has worked with honors students at Eastern for 20 years.

She will be retiring on June 30.

John Stimac, who became dean of the Honors College two years ago, said he remembers meeting Messer during his first winter at Eastern in 1999 at Fall Commencement.

“She went to every single faculty member and every single administrator and made sure our caps, our gowns and our hoods were on perfectly, and in a way, that reflects her devotion to the students,” Stimac said. “Our job is to be there for the students, and she wanted to make the students’ day perfect by making us look good, and that’s Margaret.”

Messer, of Alderson, W. Va., said she and her husband John came to Eastern about 35 years ago, but they did not intend to stay.

“John received a position teaching in the School of Technology, and he was going to get a little bit of experience as a college professor and we were going to move on,” Messer said. “However, as the years went by, our children enjoyed Charleston and I got the job with Peace Meal (Senior Nutrition Program) so here we are 35 years later.”

She was introduced to the honors program at Eastern before the Honors College existed, and she needed a practicum for one of her education classes.

Herbert Lasky, the emeritus dean of the Honors College, directed Messer to work with honors students for a research project.

Messer said Lasky saw that she enjoyed working with students and would fit the structure of the Honors College so he hired her as a part-time adviser.

She said of all of the highlights of working at Eastern, she will miss the students the most.

“The thing I like best about working with students is seeing them grow into their potential and being able to succeed and then excel in so many areas of their life,” she said.

In an email, Kaylee Justice, a junior mathematics major, said Messer was more than willing to help whenever she had a problem or needed someone to talk to.

“Because of you, I was presented with opportunities I never would have been given otherwise,” Justice wrote to Messer. “The experiences I gained from those opportunities helped me grow as a person and made my college experience even better. You are a truly wonderful person, and I, along with the rest of the honors students, am going to miss you terribly.”

Messer said she enjoys working with honors students because they are typically motivated, innovative and academically driven.

She said she loves the opportunity to see students evolve from being unsure and nervous to successful and confident.

“She has been here since its inception, and she knows the workings of the Honors College inside and out so she is the fountain of all information, really,” Stimac said. “She helps all students from becoming a prospective student to being to a new freshman to a graduating senior to being an alumnus.”

When the honors program began at Eastern 30 years ago, about 250 students were involved, she said.

One of her favorite memories was in 2003 when Lasky petitioned for the honors program to become the Honors College. They had more than 600 honors students at that time and met the criteria of the National Collegiate Honors Council.

Messer said she decided to retire to spend more time with her family, which includes seven grandsons.

In her free time, she said she likes to read and travel. She plans to go to Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, in the fall to visit her daughter and four of her grandsons.

“I joke that I would like to see her letter of retirement lost in the mail,” Stimac said. “It is going to be a well-deserved retirement, but it is bittersweet. I could be here another 20 years and still learn from Margaret.”

Rachel Rodgers can be reached at 581-2812 or rjrodgers@eiu.edu.