Edrie Swanson knows the magic of Baker University. She’s seen it. She’s felt it. She knows it never fades.

Her office in Constant Hall portrayed that – up until last weekend when she boxed it all up and carried it home. Baker pamphlets stood in neatly piled stacks on her desk. Orange blocks lined her bookshelf spelling out a name that has become sacred to her. B-A-K-E-R.<br/>Swanson, who recently retired from her position as executive secretary to the president, didn't even start packing during her last day on campus as a full-time employee of BU.Swanson, who recently retired from her position as executive secretary to the president, didn't even start packing during her last day on campus as a full-time employee of BU.
Swanson, who recently retired from her position as executive secretary to the president, didn’t even start packing during her last day on campus as a full-time employee of BU.

“I thought I’d be really sad and teary, but I don’t think I’m leaving,” said Swanson, whose final day on campus was last Friday. “Baker can’t get rid of me that easy.”

She’s right. When Swanson took a job here, she fell in love with the area. Since then, she’s fallen in love with the people, the campus and her job. Baker is a part of her now, as if her career here was always planned out, as if she belongs here.

“I’ve been hanging around here for a lot of years,” Swanson said. “It feels like my second home.”

Her real home, which will serve as her new office, is located just across the street from Constant Hall. Her four children graduated from here. She even earned a degree from the Overland Park campus.

In a way, Swanson’s life is entangled in the Baker magic, as if she and her family have been swept away by it.

“When we get together, my kids talk about how they had the same professors, knew the same people and were involved in the same activities,” Swanson said. “It creates such a bond for our family.”

Swanson’s family can talk about changes and improvements. They can laugh about old jokes and memories.

After all, 70-year-old Swanson has seen it all.

She’s served under three presidents – Ralph Tanner, Dan Lambert and Pat Long. She was here when Horn and Markham apartments opened, when Baker inducted its first female president and when the Clarice L. Osborne Memorial Chapel was reconstructed stone by stone.

“When we first talked about the chapel, it was a dream,” Swanson said. “It was really quite spectacular when that happened.”

So spectacular, in fact, that Swanson still tells stories about the day they opened up the crates containing the stones.

“One fun thing about it was that when they opened up the bin it said, ‘Hi, yanks’ on it,” she said, laughing.

She has hundreds of stories like this one, hundreds of laughs and giggles sparked by fond memories of her time here.

The memories of all the friends and colleagues she has will last forever.

“I like the way the campus interacts with each other,” she said. “I like the smallness. I feel like a part of everything on campus.”

Over the course of Swanson’s two decades of work, she has been a part of almost everything, Terri Morris, coordinator of conferences and campus events, said.

“She is very classy, very professional,” Morris said about Swanson, who she has worked on and off with for more than 15 years. “She has a great eye for detail. She’s been very important to Baker.”

Morris said her friend would continue to be involved in campus activities, planning events at Collins House.

"I'm really excited about cutting back and being a special assistant to the president," Swanson said. "I'll miss the student contact and just the day-to-day of seeing my friends."<br/>Friends like Morris and Administrative Assistant Myra Glover, friends who turn to her for guidance and answers.Friends like Morris and Administrative Assistant Myra Glover, friends who turn to her for guidance and answers.
Friends like Morris and Administrative Assistant Myra Glover, friends who turn to her for guidance and answers.

“She has always been my go-to person,” Glover said. “If you really, really want to know what direction to go or what happened, that’s Edrie. That says a lot about her.”

What says more about Swanson, perhaps, is her dedication to the institution that has shaped her and molded her into a better person and a better friend – an institution that helped raise her children.

“It’s just been a great experience and part of my life,” Swanson said. “I think it was just meant to be, and I’ve loved it.”