Nancy Masingale Spreads Joy

Nancy Masingale saw an ad in the newspaper for an offset press operator at Gonzaga University in 1977. She had no idea what the job entailed, nor what an offset press was. But she applied and was selected for the job.

“Ginny Moeller was my boss. When she showed me the offset press and asked if I had ever operated one, I said ‘No. But I can learn.’ Apparently, she liked my positive attitude. And I learned quick,” says Masingale, who will be stepping down in February after serving 47-and-a-half years in the same office, her desk on either side of the hallway window in College Hall, “where I can be readily available to help anyone who needs it, or just have a conversation.”

It is hard to imagine Campus Printing without Masingale, but she has instilled her passion for quality customer service on those left in place to carry on after Nancy retires to her Loon Lake cabin deck to ponder life’s mysteries every morning with a cup of coffee and a pristine view of the water, along with spending more time with her family.

But she won’t be fully retired. She will still manage her Poor Boys Tire & Automotive shop at 2501 N. Division, a business she has owned and operated for many years.

“Like here, customer service is key at my other business,” she says.

She has seen a remarkable evolution in the printing business. From ditto machines and an offset press to magstripe typewriters and the IBM Selectric, “which I loved because it had a correcting button,” Masingale recalls.

In the early days she oversaw the switchboard through which all incoming calls to Gonzaga were patched. Staff employees manned the board during the days, but students took the evening and overnight shifts, which meant “most of the time they were sleeping on the floor or taking a night off.” Masingale would fill in overnight, buzz home for a quick shower and a new set of clothes and be back at the crack of dawn to begin her regular shift.

Of course, her regular shift was always early to complete any last-minute jobs for faculty who needed something more before their 8 a.m. class.

“If you are instilled with an ethic of providing good customer service, you want to help people have a very good day. My staff has always epitomized this ethic,” Masingale says.

There was a point at Gonzaga where the University considered outsourcing all printing services. Masingale fought “tooth and nail” to convince the University that it made best financial and good common sense to keep those services in house. She won out.

Nancy and her colleagues did a lot of work for retired History Professor Betsy Downey for 40 years. And Downey couldn’t be more appreciative.

“Anybody who could do this job for as many years as Nancy has done, for the crazy people she has done it for, deserves sainthood,” says Downey. “She taught her people how to respect the work we are doing for students, and they have always done amazing work for faculty and staff alike.”

And Masingale and her cast have always done their work with a smile.

No one will miss her more than Sandy Hank, who has served as her right hand for the past 42 years and succeeds her as supervisor in Campus Printing.

“She is truly what Gonzaga is all about. She has made it her life to make it a better place for everyone. Our office has gone through so many changes with machinery, staff and technology. She makes it a great place to work for everyone,” says Hank. “I have some very large shoes to fill.”

Replies Masingale, “If you can get up in the morning and not be upset about going to work – for 47 years – it must be a great place to work.”

She’ll miss people the most. But she promises to frequent campus for her morning walks, and probably recall some of the stories Father Art Dussault would share with her or a joke or two Dan Brajcich had told her over the years, “some I couldn’t share in mixed company,” she quips.

Chief Strategy Officer Chuck Murphy has been around as long as Masingale and said you could always count on Nancy being one of the first people in College Hall in the morning, around 6 or 6:30, ready to provide services for last minute faculty requests for morning classes, making coffee for the College Hall faculty/staff lounge, and greeting those walking the halls in the morning with a smile and a “good morning” from behind her desk.”

Brian Steverson, business ethics professor and a friend of Nancy for 32 years, recalls running late with an exam “(one of those the ‘morning of” type of things) and needed copies right away. Rookie mistake, right?? Nancy, of course, let me know that they would be ready in time. But she took the time, when I dropped the exam off to be copied, to ask questions about me, since I was a new faculty. Where I was coming from, what interests I had, etc. She did this to calm me down but to also welcome me to the GU community. I was blown away! She made a point of welcoming me as a friend. And she did the same with many faculty members,” Steverson says.

When he became faculty president in 2014 Masingale, again, reached out to offer a helping hand. “That meant a ton to me,” says Steverson.

Mail Services Supervisor Curt Eldredge calls Masingale a great boss, mentor and friend.

“When I took over she helped me reorganize the mailroom to make it more advanced than many college mailrooms in the country,” he says, “including the addition of digital mail lockers and a new scanning system to expedite service.”

Says Murphy, “Her role has evolved over time, just as the University has evolved over her time here. What started as Faculty Services, a centralized academic service area for faculty who were without staff support, turned into a sophisticated printing and mail service operation serving the entire University community, services that will continue and grow long after her retirement.”

“One day, I was changing the magenta toner in one of our color copiers and somehow didn’t get it clicked in quite right and ended up wearing pink and so did the carpet around the copier,” Hank recalls. “It was hard to get her to stop laughing. Another laughing moment was seeing her stand on her chair in fright of a mouse until I could shoe it away. In that moment I couldn’t stop laughing.”

And most who know Masingale, Hank, Diana Lartz and Sheila Schulz, know that a smile and good service will continue to greet them at the window in Campus Printing, even though Masingale will be waking up to her coffee on the deck or on a beach somewhere.

“That’s my idea of retirement,” says Gonzaga’s longtime ambassador of goodwill.