Ann Tremarello
When Ann Tremarello retired in June 2002, she had worked for the University of Alaska for more than half its existence and longer than any other employee.
While her jobs during that time dealt with academic record-keeping, students were always the center of her attention.
"It was rewarding, being able to get to know a lot of the students well, and it was a very good feeling to help them work through the problems or find ways to get around some obstacle," she said in an interview before her retirement.
Tremarello began working as a receptionist in the university’s admissions office the year she graduated, 1957. She retired 45 years later as the institution’s registrar, the person in charge of registrations, academic records and graduations.
Tremarello arrived at the university as a student in 1953, when the institution was just beginning a period of rapid growth and modernization under President Ernest Patty. She attended the famous protest in 1957 to dedicate the headstone protesting Patty’s ban of alcohol on campus.
Tremarello met her husband, Joe, while they were students on campus, and they were a well-known and much admired couple in Fairbanks. Joe had a long career as a local high school and UAF basketball coach. Lathrop High School named its court for him after he died in 2012.
Tremarello guided the university through the transitions from paper records to computers and the web. In the process, she helped eliminate the notorious lines that previously formed during the beginning of each semester.
"One can't even begin to measure the incredible influence Ann has had,” then-UAF Chancellor Marshall Lind said in 2001. “She's constantly working in the background to make things better for our students."
More online about Ann Tremarello:
- of her June 2016 Legacy Lecture
- about her retirement