Over Beth McGlamery King’s long career with the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences (FBNS), she’s adapted to advances in technology and even seen former students return as faculty members. One thing that’s never changed — and what’s kept her in the department for 40 years — is being part of a friendly, fun community.

We asked King, an administrative support specialist, to share some of her favorite career experiences in FBNS, previously known as the Department of Food Science.

How has the department changed?

When I first came to work at Food Science in 1984, each office suite of five professors had one administrative assistant, formerly referred to as secretaries. We had to type up all of their manuscripts, publications and reports on the old huge IBM computers that used floppy disks. We had to type up travel reimbursements, envelopes and labels, all on typewriters. We also helped the graduate students with their posters, typed up their plans of work and whatever else they needed.

I’ve been lucky enough to stay in this department and have moved from one office to the other, and am currently in the main office working under Dr. K.P. Sandeep, the department head.

Why have you chosen to stay with FBNS?

It’s always felt like a family unit from day one. Everybody’s always gotten along. The faculty, staff and students are all great to work with. We work together as a team. You never feel like you have a problem talking to each other if you need help. We’ve had a lot of students come through here that are now faculty. It speaks to who we are.

Any interesting or memorable experiences you’d like to highlight?

We have a good time; it’s not just all work here. We do a lot of social activities to make sure that everybody feels welcome and works together as one. The most memorable highlight would be the pie throwing event at the Halloween spaghetti lunch that the social and rec committee would host every year. Karl Hedrick [FBNS research operations manager and building liaison] would usually be the target, and boy, would everyone line up to purchase a pie to be the one to get him!