If Olivia Hurd were a Guilford student, you would probably see her playing Amtgard with the Yachting club outside of Frank Family Science Center. As for Paul Johnson, Hurd’s boss and coworker in Guilford’s mail room, he would be the guy on your hall lending out his elaborate DVD collection. For the past two years, Hurd has worked part-time in Guilford’s mail room and the print shop in King hall, where the faculty mail is distributed.

If forced to choose, Hurd would pick the print shop over the mail room because of her passion for the machines. “I like machines better than people.That is just personal preference on my part. It does not mean that there is anything wrong with people. Those machines can just do the most incredible things,” said Hurd.

Hurd began her time at Guilford after retiring from 30 years of teaching at Western Guilford high school. She was forced to quit her position as a physics and chemistry teacher when she was diagnosed with retinopathy and lost half her eyesight.

Hurd took four years off after her retirement from teaching. “I had a lot of vision problems during that time and had two operations. For a while there they thought I was not going to see again,” said Hurd.

During this time, Hurd feared she might lose her eyesight permanently she developed a serious interest in Ham radio, an amateur radio service that allows you to communicate all over the world. Her ardor for Ham radio grew as she realized that, “at least you can get someone to talk to in the dark.”

Hurd received her Associate Degree in Electrical Engineering technology from GTCC after her retirement. “I always wanted to become a HAM radio operator and work in emergency situations, but I didn’t realize how much you needed your sight for that. I went ahead and got my license anyway.”

For now, Hurd said, “I appreciate being allowed to serve students at Guilford College.” She does not know how long she plans to stay; she hopes she can at least pay off her new truck.

“I am so lucky to have this job,” said Hurd. “The college has been so kind in letting me have a job, because it takes me a few seconds to see something. Reading the mail I try to be very careful, because they say accuracy is more important than speed. I can be accurate, I just can’t be fast,”.

For the future, Hurd said, “I have cataract surgery coming up and I do not know what the driving situation is going to be.”

Hurd’s Co-worker and Founders hall mail room boss, Paul Johnson, has been at Guilford for three and a half years.

Johnson grew up in Manhattan and spent 30 years working in the faculty mail room at Columbia University in New York City. Johnson found his job at Columbia after he spent time in the Navy. He was promoted to manager after several years.

Johnson’s love for NYC can be heard in his voice as he talks about his past. Johnson chose to move to Greensboro to be close to his daughter and grandson. “I have seven grandkids,” said Johnson.

Both Johnson and his wife often hunger to move back to NYC, but he couldn’t leave his grandson. Johnson will occasionally bring the grandson to work. “He has been here (to the mail room). He likes to help out. He feels like he is doing something big,” said Johnson.

Of his free time Johnson said, “I’m a collector. It’d be easier to tell you what I don’t collect. Right now I am collecting anything related to the Simpsons.”

It is his film collection that Johnson truly loves. “I have about 6,000 movies, between videotape, laser disk, and DVD.” He could not name a favorite movie, but he loves older films.

Johnson also has a collection of names and numbers in his memory. As a student walked by and yelled out hello, Johnson laughed, “That is Katie Byrum, mailbox 344.”

Johnson knows almost every student’s name, mailbox number, and even some combinations.

“Working with students is less stress than faculty,” said Johnson. “Students have a different attitude, being that they are younger. At Columbia the faculty and staff thought they were better than you.”

Johnson finds his employment at Guilford much easier than his time at Columbia. “One of the reasons I left was that it was a lot of pressure,” he said. Guilford’s mail room receives less mail than Columbia’s.

Despite the lower stress at Guilford, Johnson still dreads Mondays. Because the mail room is closed on Saturday and the mail is not picked up, Mondays require that twice as much mail be picked-up and sorted.

Daily, either Johnson or Hurd will go over to West Market where the mail accumulates, bring it back to Guilford and distribute it. They also wait in line at the post office to buy stamps; only a small amount of stamps can be kept in the mail room at a time.

Johnson’s only complaint about his job is the poor ventilation in the mail room. “It gets really hot in here because of the new Grill. We’ve got fans though.”

Johnson’s familiarity and presence with Guilford students fits into characteristics that they value in the faculty and staff. Senior Rachel White said, “I would not be surprised if he knows my mailbox number, I have been here for four years. And knowing people by first name is the way at Guilford.”z