Skip and Lori Jimerson at Skip’s retirement party

On September 24, Clark College bid a fond farewell to retiring Grounds Manager Skip Jimerson. The Penguin Student Lounge was filled with colleagues who’d worked with Jimerson over his quarter-century at the college.

Jimerson began his career at Clark as a custodian in 1990 and shortly thereafter moved to the grounds division. Once there, his strong work ethic and dedication helped him advance until, in 2008, he was named grounds manager.

Many people stood to share memories of Jimerson, often referring to his famously laconic demeanor. (Indeed, true to character, Jimerson declined to make any public remarks at the party.) “Skip is a quiet leader,” said Clark College President Bob Knight in his remarks. “He doesn’t talk much—he talks with his actions. He cares about this institution.”

Director of Facilities Services Tim Petta said, “In my mind, I’m going to think about you as the college’s Lorax—you speak for the trees.”

Grounds Manager Skip Jimerson and CADD Professor Keith Stansbury share a laugh at Jimerson’s retirement party after 25 years of service. At the party, Director of Facilities Services Tim Petta, not pictured, referenced the quotation on this plaue that reads, “A society grows greeat when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.

Jimerson was instrumental in making Clark College officially recognized as a Tree Campus USA by the Arbor Day Foundation for the past five years, as well as in an ongoing effort to plant state trees from all 50 states on the college’s main campus. Colleagues mentioned many other projects he’d helped realize, ranging from outdoor play spaces for Child & Family Studies to work on new facilities like Clark College at Columbia Tech Center and the new STEM Building being built on the main campus. Other colleagues praised him as a manager.

“What I most value is his gentle spirit,” said Director of Career Services Edie Blakley. “Some of our students have less-than-stellar backgrounds. Skip, you’ve always given people a second chance, and that has really touched my heart.”

There was one more colleague who had plenty of praise for him: Lori Jimerson, Skip’s wife of 26 years, who works as a fiscal specialist in Facilities Services. “I’m going to miss him as a coworker, honestly,” she said in between serving slices of cake to the gathered guests. “He’s an excellent colleague. … He’s really put his heart and soul into this place.”

Photos: Clark College/Hannah Erickson

Environmental Biology students take a break before planting a Chinese Pistache in Scarpelli Circle to smile with Instructional and Classroom Support Technician Tim Carper, who organizes the annual tree planting at Clark.

As Kermit the Frog once sang, it’s not easy being green. Admittedly, Kermit probably wasn’t talking about shoveling dirt in a cold, quintessentially Pacific Northwest drizzle. But members of the Clark College and greater Vancouver community banded together on November 6 to do just that during the college’s annual tree planting. These plantings help maintain the main campus’s arboretum, as well as its status as a Tree Campus USA.

The group that gathered under rainy skies to plant trees included students from Clark’s Environmental Biology class; members of the Clark College Environmental Club; participants in the Washington Conservation Corps; members of the college’s Tree Advisory Committee; and representatives from Vancouver’s Urban Forestry. Staff from Clark College Facilities Services also assisted in the project.

Volunteers clear Scarpelli Circle of non-native plants and prepare it for having a new tree planted in its center.

The group planted four trees. Two of them–an American Yellowwood and a Chinese Pistache–were donated by Urban Forestry and are new species to the arboretum. The group also planted a Knobcone Pine; this tree was actually an offshoot from an older tree on campus that died and was removed. “So technically, it is a new tree to campus as well, because the parent tree had died and been removed from the inventory,” said Instructional and Classroom Support Technician Tim Carper, who has organized the tree planting and Tree Campus USA activities at Clark for the past four years.

Carper noted that the Yellowwood and Pistache weren’t just new species to the campus–they were entirely new genera. “We are very close to having trees representing every genus that will reasonably grow in our climate and is available to us,” he said. “That has been kind of the guideline for adding to the arboretum.”

The fourth tree, a Snake-Bark Maple with colorful leaves and bark, was appropriately enough planted near Frost Arts Center.

 Photos: Clark College/Hannah Erickson