By CHRISTOPHER SARACHILLI ’14

In 1969, man landed on the moon, the Beatles released Abbey Road, and Eddie Frazier took a job at Beaver College. When he started working for Dining Services at the age of 19, he was younger than many students who came into the Dining Hall.

Eddie is 63 now, and for the past 45 years, he has arrived promptly at 9 a.m. and left at 3 p.m. He came in during snowstorms. He came in during hurricanes. If the Dining Hall was open that day, Eddie was there, washing dishes, sweeping, mopping, clearing tables, refilling the soda fountain, stocking the ice machine, and taking out the trash. He did it longer than anyone else in Dining Services. Longer, even, than Dining Services itself: Parkhurst has been running Arcadia’s food services for only eight years, and Eddie joined back when Beaver College handled its own food.

Now, Eddie is retiring. One of the longest-serving employees at Arcadia, he was honored at the annual Years of Service luncheon on May 21.

When asked of his favorite memories working at Arcadia, he began listing his friends.

“John, Irvine, Richard, Mary, Nick,” he said, counting off names on his bright green gloves as he remembered those he worked for, those he worked with, and those who had left years ago. Eventually, he gave up counting. Likely, it was because he ran out of fingers rather than names.

Some of them he may have met during lunch in the Dining Hall. He’d take his break at 11 a.m.; it was the one time in the day that he got to dirty the dishes himself, even if he had to clean them up later on.

“I’ll come out here and I’ll see students and faculty sitting with him,” said Jen Rodolfo, general manager of Parkhurst Dining Services at Arcadia. “He’s a fixture of Dining Services. Our staff will greatly miss him.”

His last day was May 6. He looks forward to more opportunities to take the bus downtown to be surrounded by people. He also will have more time to listen to his beloved oldies music and watch movies. Among his favorites are Jaws, John Wayne westerns, and James Bond films.

Even with his newfound freedom, Eddie won’t be far from Arcadia. His friends already have invited him back to Arcadia for lunch—and Eddie Frazier has made a lot of friends at Arcadia in 45 years.