In May, the Student Government Association honored Tony Marin, a mechanic with the Physical Plant Department, with an Administrative Staff Appreciation Award. Colby visited with Marin recently as he recuperated from knee surgery. A Clinton native, and the youngest of nine children, Marin lives in Benton with his wife, Patricia O'Keefe.

There's a story told about what brought you to Colby. Could you tell it again?
That's a true story. I came to Colby so I could get married in the chapel. In the fall of '91. The story goes, I told Pat it was time to get married. We'd been hanging out for probably eight years or so, and I said, "We can get married in the backyard." [He laughs.] But she said, "If we can get married in [Lorimer] chapel, that's where I'd like to get married." So she called and she talked to Darlene Hallee [now retired from the Office of the Dean of the College] and Darlene told her you either have to be alumni or work up there. So we didn't have a chance. When Pat told me that, I said, "Well, I'll get me a job at Colby." At the time I was working at Houle's [Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning in Waterville]. So I went to work up there and before I even left personnel, I hadn't even worked at Colby at all, I knew the day I was getting married. The girls in personnel scheduled it for me. March 7, 1992. That was the day we got married. They gave me two days to pick from and that's the one I picked.

You're a people person. Do you know everybody at Colby?
I know a lot of people. More than a lot of us at physical plant, but I don't know 'em all. I'll say hello to everybody.

You met the candidates for Colby president?
There was a fellow from Middlebury and he was sharp. He was young. I enjoyed listening to him. I went and ate my dinner back at the shop and when I came around back by Bixler, I knew if I timed it right, I'd get a chance to say hello to him. And I come around and sure enough, he was walking away with [Colby trustee] Larry Pugh. They were hanging out. One of the students came by that was on COOT with me so I had a talk with him. This [Middlebury] fella got away from me so I whistled to him like a rabbit, you know? I stopped him in his tracks. I went over and I told the guy, I said, "I'll tell you what." I said, "I don't know if you'll be president at Colby but you'll be president somewhere." You could see that the guy was sharp. And then they picked Bro. Bro's a good choice.

But you enjoy the students?
I've been on COOT [Colby Outdoors Orientation Trips]. Last year it was my first time. So I go back to see my buddies. It was Jody Pelotte [dining services]. I say, "Hey, I'm going on COOT." I told him where I was going. I brought my cooking grill, my little Sunbeam. Jody fixed me up with some racks of ribs, I brought some sausage. I brought a whole cooler full of food. 'Cause they feed 'em trail food. They feed 'em rice and beans and gorp. Nothing I'd eat. So I had my Jeep and I brought all my stuff and I was Wishbone. I was the cook.

You still see those kids?
Oh, yeah. They've been over a couple times. My wife will feed them. We had them over for Easter. They're good kids. They just need a place to come to. They like Colby but they like to get away, too.

Mark Johnston, he works in mechanical services, we took a day off and went bird hunting up north. That was the first time I'd ever done that, riding the roads up there. Paul Neundorfer ['01] went along. And Drew Johnson ['01] had to get back for football practice. And we lost communications with him. So on the way home, I was trying to figure out how I was gonna talk to [Dean of Students] Janice [Kassman] and tell her, "We lost one of your football players. And now we gotta go find him."

Ever get strange service calls?
We're a hero when we get a chance to go fish out somebody's earrings or something. . . . One of the apartments we were in, it was a beautiful apartment, they had a plugged shower. And it was plugged. You get girls with long hair, it doesn't take long for that shower drain to catch up. We got the snake down in there. We call it going fishing. We pulled back this rattail. It was huge. And the girl, she says, "I'll take that off [the snake] and I'm going to keep it because I'm going to show everybody else what we found."

. . . This spring the students honored me with a service award. They invited me to this presidential luncheon. I didn't know what it was so I showed up there, my normal self, and this place is full of people from Lovejoy and Eustis. I walked in there, they says, "Tony. We got troubles?" I says, "No, I don't think so." I says, "I got me a letter to come to lunch so here I am." Kids look at you a little different after that. They see you and they say, "Aren't you the guy who got the service award?" I say, "Yeah." They say, "How did they decide that?" I say, "I have no idea, but thank you." That was kind of nice. We hung it up downstairs. Put it on the mantel.

Another story I was going to tell you, I told President Cotter, "I've got something for you. A small token." . . . I says, "Well here it is." I handed him a two-cent coin. It was dated 1865. That was the time they were changing the name of Waterville College to Colby. I did a little history on it. The guy Colby offered them a hundred grand to get them through some rough times. So old Bill Cotter, he's looking at the date on it, I said, "That's 1865." I told him that story. He said, "Well, you're right." I said, "Keep this two cents. And when you look at it, know that I'll be giving my two cents for the good of the College."