NICEVILLE — More than 40 years ago Carolyne Laux was a student at Okaloosa-Walton Junior College.
The wife and mother of two had gone back to school because it was something she needed to do.
She didn’t have a specific study path in mind, but knew she should do it. Then her husband fell ill and she had to find a job, instead.
Rather than leave the school, Laux inquired about a secretarial position in its curriculum department.
“I said, ‘Look, I’ve never done this before, but I can do it and I need the job,’ ” she recalled.
She started work Aug. 20, 1972.
By 1975 the college’s first president, J.E. McCracken, approached her about working in his office.
She told him no thanks the first time. She enjoyed working with the various departments and was unsure what her duties in the president’s office would entail.
The second time, she was told to show up at McCracken’s office on a Monday morning with her box of things.
From that moment on, the Baker native has been the right hand of every president at what is now Northwest Florida State College.
“She knows the college inside out,” current President Ty Handy said. “There’s very little on campus she can’t say, ‘Been there, done that and here’s how we dealt with it last time.’ ”
Presidents come and go
When Carolyne Laux began working in the president’s office of then Okaloosa-Walton Junior College, the school was about 10 years old.
A second campus in DeFuniak Springs was open and the K-building, which just undergone a major renovation, was new. However, many of the now-familiar facilities didn’t exist, Laux said.
Through the 12 years she worked with President J.E. McCracken, Laux watched him focus the college’s mission to provide a variety of vocational and technical courses and keep close tabs on all developments.
“He was the best person to have founded the college,” Laux said.
In 1987, McCracken decided it was time to retire and Bob Richburg was selected to take over.
The first and second presidents of the college worked together for a short time before McCracken bowed out with the promise that he’d only be a phone call away.
Transitioning to the new leadership was an adjustment, and Laux said she had a few moments when she wondered if she would make it. Eventually, she and Richburg found their rhythm and Laux had a front-row seat to his community outreach leadership approach.
“The joke used to be that we (the college) were the best kept secret, but then Richburg came along and we just opened up,” Laux said with laugh.
Richburg gave Laux her current title of executive assistant to the president, and later asked her to help with the college’s board of trustees, which she still does today.
During the two decades of the Richburg era, she saw the college achieve a number of high points including name changes, program expansions and new campuses. In 2009, after Richburg became embroiled in a scandal and was removed from office, it was left to employees such as Laux to keep the college moving forward.
“I had to stay focused on what had to be done for the college,” she said.
After two interim presidents, Ty Handy, was hired in the summer of 2010.
“Every one of them is unique in their own way, but great to work with and for,” Laux said.
'My dream job'
The atmosphere in the president’s office at Northwest Florida State College these days is generally light.
President Ty Handy likes to make jokes. While that has taken some adjustment, longtime executive assistant Carolyne Laux, says she’s come to enjoy his easygoing manner.
In his three-year tenure, the college has completed two new facilities on the main campus, expanded its bachelor’s program offerings and pulled through both external and internal issues.
Handy said Laux has helped guide him through it all and that he enjoys working with her.
“She’s a genuinely nice person,” Handy said.
For Laux’s part, she says she simply loves her job.
Through the years she adjusted from typewriters and carbon copies to computers and emails. She found time in 1990 to finish the schooling she started in the early 1970s before accepting a secretary position at the college. And she has watched as NWF State has come full circle to embrace both the career and technical legacy of former President J.E. McCracken and the bachelor degree program additions orchestrated by Bob Richburg, the school’s second president.
Laux also has been there for 230 retirements from the college. That number will likely grow because Laux isn’t nearly finished.
Even with her 68th birthday fast-approaching, Laux said she has no plans to leave. She’ll stay as long as she feels she’s still effective because at the end of the day, she’s happy.
“This is my dream job,” Laux said. “This is the job that I always wanted to have.”
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Katie Tammen at 850-315-4440 or ktammen@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @KatieTnwfdn.