Goldsworthy ’93 finds his calling in print & mail

George Goldsworthy ’93 in his campus office.

George Goldsworthy, a 1993 Saint Michael’s graduate, joined the College staff as his first job upon earning his degree to become the unsung backbone of the College’s advertisement both on and outside of campus. After 30 years, he is still at it and would not have it any other way.

In his longtime role as manager of print and mailing services, he works with every department on campus in some way, shape, or form. He thoroughly enjoys his career that began for him as a student worker in the mailroom. “It’s been really rewarding … and I don’t know that anybody else gets to have that perspective on campus,” Goldsworthy said.

Since Goldsworthy had attended Catholic schools his entire life before attending Saint Michael’s, the Edmundite heritage of the College was a factor in his decision to enroll, he said, and he had a connection with Fr. Brian Cummings, S.S.E. ’86, since both men grew up in Jersey City, NJ.

Vermont was on Goldsworthy’s radar and in his heart from an early age. “I had spent all of my summers at my Dad’s best friends’ farm in East Saint Johnsbury and so had wanted to live in this state for as long as I could remember, and Chittenden County was as close as I could get!” he said. The University of Vermont was not giving scholarships to out-of-state students in 1989, so he turned to Saint Michael’s, which came through for him.

Goldsworthy’s plan for his life when he first enrolled at Saint Michael’s was quite different from his plan by the time he graduated. He enrolled as a history major with a dream of becoming a district attorney, but after spending the summer following his first college year in an internship at a district attorney’s office, he became disillusioned, realizing that not everybody in the profession seemed  to share his high youthful ideals about the law. Based on that, he returned to Saint Michael’s the following fall with no further intention to pursue law, changing his major to political science. That same year he got a work-study job in the mailroom, and it turned out to be life altering.

His several years of mailroom experience as a student, primarily sorting mail, taught him the essentials of daily operations there, and after he graduated, Goldsworthy became the mail clerk/manager of the mailroom. He said he enjoyed this job a lot since it felt to him as if he was at the center of communications on campus during an era before cell phones and e-mail when students and staff constantly sent and received mail the old-fashioned way.

He also liked the work because he interacted with virtually everyone on campus, allowing him to exercise a small hidden talent he developed in the process. During his time as mail clerk, Goldsworthy was able to memorize everybody’s campus box numbers and enjoyed surprising people with their box numbers when they were not expecting it either when they came in or even if he saw them in town or around campus.

Eventually his job shifted to manager of the College print shop where he works today in the basement of Joyce Hall just past the mail room. “Everyone has to deal with this department in some way, shape, or form,” Goldsworthy said, observing that through his work at the print shop, he was able to reinvigorate relationships that previously had fallen to the rise of technology.

Among his most notable contribution to campus over the decades as he sees it was setting a fun and life-enriching precedent that many students on campus today enjoy thanks to his initiative years ago. He explained:

“Back when nobody was allowed to have pets on campus, I started bringing my dog Jenny to work every day. My personnel file is full of letters from Student Life and the Head of Security at the time saying I need to stop bringing the dog to work. After numerous years, Adrie Kusserow, then of the anthropology faculty, petitioned the president of the College to make the case that ‘George’s dog is important for everybody’s mental health and well-being’.”

As a result, “the dog got a presidential pardon,” Goldsworthy said with amusement. “So, she was kind of the first dog on campus.” Things have changed a lot for the better since then, he said, since Saint Michael’s students with permission now enjoy the privilege of having emotional support animals every day, though few realize that it all traces back to Jenny.

Goldsworthy said COVID-19 has reduced demands on the print shop to print advertising for events since the pandemic prevented so many of those events that would have happened in a more normal year.

With fewer jobs on his plate in the pandemic and hoping to contribute meaningfully to the gradual reintegration of life on campus, Goldsworthy went on a 2021 winter break trip to Florida through MOVE, the service arm of Edmundite Campus Ministry, with a handful of Saint Michael’s students. They committed half their days in Immokalee, FL, to Habitat for Humanity and the other half of the days to classrooms for migrant families. Though he was not involved in MOVE during his time as a student, he said, that service trip to Florida has become a treasured memory. He is an avid sports fan and sportsman who enjoys hunting and is a veteran umpire for organized baseball in the area.

Goldsworthy offered advice for incoming Saint Michael’s students, which will include his daughter, Eliza, in the fall of 2022: Most important, he said, is to get involved with as much as possible. Academics, service trips, and clubs all encourage students to blossom and expand their circles in his view, and it is important to take advantage of the liberal arts experience that Saint Michael’s provides.

“Every year I end up probably cashing back in a few vacation days that I didn’t use, and it’s because there’s no need to take a Thursday just because I have a day I gotta take,” he said. “I enjoy being here. I really like the campus … It’s home.”