Three retiring Colby Community College employees will be recognized for their service during a reception at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, May 4, in the Robert Burnett Student Union multipurpose room. Copy center manager Regena Barnum, library associate Carol Bohme, and nursing instructor Marilyn Sidebottom will retire at the end of the academic year.

Regena Barnum
Barnum grew up on a farm north of Rexford and attended school in the Golden Plains School District before graduating from Golden Plains High School. She then attended CCC and earned a certificate in secretarial science. Before joining CCC in 1980 to work in the print shop, she was employed at a packing plant in McCook, Neb., and the Colby Free Press.

Memories of her early days at the college include several machines and pieces of equipment.

"We had three presses, a typesetter machine, and a dark room to develop negatives," said Barnum.

A lot of other equipment was used to size, color, collate, and print. With coworkers Frank Vacca and Fred Miller, she helped with the layout on college publications that ranged from single-page flyers to more time-consuming pieces such as course catalogs.

The workload began to change with the aid of technology.

"In the late 80s, we got a Mac computer," she said. "At first, it was hard because we had to learn how to control a mouse. But then it was a lot easier to rearrange things on a computer than laying out everything on a table."

A memorable event happened in 1994 when a pipe burst in the basement of Thomas Hall, where the print shop was located.

"The water level was so high it went through the underground tunnel, and someone in the basement of the library saw the wet floor over there."

Regena and her husband Evan have two adult sons. Christopher lives in Hays, and David, who is getting married on April 30, is in Atwood.

Her plans after retiring as the manager of the Copy Center include traveling, gardening, and volunteer work.

Carol Bohme
Originally from Menlo, Bohme graduated from Hoxie High School before enrolling at CCC. Her resume includes positions at the Garden City High School library for three years, Vision Source of Colby for nearly 17 years, and a six-year run at Colby's Pioneer Memorial Library.

Her journey as library associate at Colby Community College began in 2015.

"I will always cherish my time at CCC," she said. "It has been very rewarding to be 'Grandma' to so many students over the years. They have truly enriched my life."

In retirement, she intends to take long walks and work on putting puzzles together. She also wants to spend more time with friends and family, including her husband Bruce, a son, Jason Daniels and wife Jessica, and a daughter, Hope Swartz and husband Christopher.

"CCC is like one big family," Bohme added. "And I'm so blessed to have been a small part of it. Go Trojans!"

Marilyn Sidebottom
Sidebottom was born in Wichita and entered college close to home at Butler Community College and took nursing prerequisite courses before obtaining a bachelor's degree in health arts from St. Francis College. She later earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Master of Science in Nursing from Chamberlain College.

She joined the nursing faculty at CCC in 2015 as an adjunct instructor and moved to a full-time position a year later.

In retirement, she wants to enjoy family, travel, finish projects, start new projects, and volunteer. With Timothy, her husband of 45 years, she has three sons, Matthew, Robert, and Phillip, and 13-year-old granddaughter Angelina.

"My time at Colby has been filled with good times and challenging times," said Sidebottom. "I have felt welcomed and supported from my first introduction to Seth Carter to the rest of the staff and that first class of students. It has had a lot of challenges, but I have grown and learned from every challenge. This last year has been particularly difficult, but without the support and help, it could have been a lot worse. I have enjoyed working with all the students that I have taught. Because they are the last class that I will teach, the class of 2021-2022 will always be special. I want to thank everyone at Colby for the best experience of my life."

For more information about the reception, contact Doug Johnson at 460-5400.

   

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