The professor who needed a babysitter, the chief financial officer who found him a job, the housekeeping staff who took him in and showed him the ropes. Even now, all these years later, Robert Glaser ’78 finds it hard to explain how he not only ended up at Guilford College, but thrived once he did.
“I always tell people it was a fluke that I got to Guilford,” he says. “But I also tell them that once I got to Guilford it was not a fluke getting to stay. So many people noticed me and made sure I had everything I needed to succeed and graduate. Any other school would have blown me off. Who knows where I’d be today without Guilford?”
Everyone who makes a gift to Guilford is inspired for personal reasons. For years, Robert has been generous to the College with financial gifts. Last month, he donated $5,000 to Guilford’s Loyalty Fund. Gifts to the Loyalty Fund can be used by the College where funds are needed most at a particular point in time. Sometimes those funds are allocated for masks and disinfectants like during the pandemic. Other times, they're used to help students who need help covering everyday living expenses.
The Loyalty Fund wasn’t around when Robert showed up at Guilford in 1974, but he certainly could have benefitted from it. Robert and his girlfriend, Trish, were living in Florida when Trish's brother, Raleigh Bailey, asked if they’d be interested in moving to Greensboro to watch his two toddler daughters. Raleigh was recently divorced and starting a new job as a professor at Guilford.
Robert had taken some college classes and wanted to obtain his degree. The young couple took Raleigh up on his offer to help with the girls and attend Guilford — wherever that was. “I mean I’d never heard of it,” he says. “I wanted to go to college and Guilford seemed like the best option — actually the only option.”
“So many people saw me for who I was. They stepped back and let me learn and grow on my own, but whenever I needed help, someone from Guilford was there for me.
Robert and Trish lived with Raleigh and his daughters on campus in the married-student housing for about 18 months. Robert left Guilford for about six months to work construction and save money. When he returned, Jim Newlin '61, the College’s Chief Financial Officer, offered him a job in Guilford's Housekeeping Department.
At the time, the College’s housekeeping staff was all Black and all women. “I think the head housekeeper had her doubts about me, but they were patient and helpful,” he says. “Very understanding.”
Understanding. That, Robert says, is why he gives to Guilford.
“So many people saw me for who I was,” he says. “They stepped back and let me learn and grow on my own, but whenever I needed help, someone from Guilford was there for me. When you reflect on your life, you think about the people that made an impact on you. In my case one of the biggest impacts wasn’t a person, it was a place. Jim Newlin didn’t teach me in any classes but I learned so much from him — the whole College, really.”
Robert graduated from Guilford with a degree in Geology. He made a career out of working for the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality before retiring to LaJolla, Calif. There’s a whole country between Robert and Guilford, but the distance only makes him fonder for his College. “Guilford was always there for me,” he says. “That’s why I give. I want to be there for them.”