Dean Stone set to retire

Dean Greg Stone is retiring after 10 years as Dean of Students at Castleton State College. “This place, this was the culmination of my work experience. I’ve worked up through Res. Life, I’ve been an associate dean and I got to be a dean for 10 years. The people I’ve worked with have been spectacular,” Stone said.

Stone’s career at Castleton has encompassed numerous positions within Residence Life, as well as coaching both men’s and women’s ice hockey. He has reached out to the community, always with Castleton’s best interests at heart.

“What I wanted to do was to make sure we were offering something of quality,” Stone said. “When you offer quality here, pretty quickly that will come back, because you’re going to leave here and you’re going to tell everybody what a wonderful place it was.”

In his time at Castleton, Stone has worked closely with President Dave Wolk. Wolk discussed the importance of Stone’s position at the college, and his involvement in the school’s current changes.

“I’ve very much enjoyed my interactions with Dean Stone. He’s been a wonderful student advocate, a very gentle man and a gentleman. Always looking out for what’s best for students,” Wolk said.

“When I came here, he repeatedly talked to me about starting hockey for both women and men, because he’d been such an avid hockey fan . . . the very first day I met him he started talking about hockey and never stopped,” Wolk said.

Wolk said that Stone was also a key player in the ongoing campus renovations at Castleton.

“He also talked from the very beginning about the need to renovate and expand the student center which was built back in the seventies and never really served our needs,” Wolk said.

Wolk explained that Stone has been consistently involved with the Student Initiative from the very start of it. He’s also played a role in the CHANGE initiative, alongside Professor Linda Olson.

Associate Dean Dennis Proulx spoke highly of his experience working with Stone.

“Anyone who knows Greg Stone knows that he’s just a great guy. He’s at the age of retirement, and he has the wisdom of someone who is retiring after 30 of being in the field. So, he’s very wise counseling us as his mentees. He will ask questions as opposed to giving direction,” Proulx said.

“I came to work here five years ago, and he is in the top two supervisors I’ve ever had in my twenty-plus years in higher education,” said Proulx, “He’s a great coach, a great mentor.”

Proulx has been hired to fill the position of Dean of Students once Stone has officially retired.

“In general, this institution really cares,” Stone said. “It’s really hard when you work somewhere where you can’t connect with people. Here, we’ve really worked hard. The faculty reaches out and we reach out, and we all see ourselves in the same endeavor. And that’s really rewarding, because the people that you work with become your friends.”

Stone explained why the Castleton experience often varies so greatly from larger schools with less student-faculty interaction.

“What do we do? We teach young folks, face to face, very well. We spend a lot of time with them, give them a lot of experiences for opportunities, and let them explore. That’s what we do,” Stone said.

Stone spoke fondly of his tenure at Castleton, adding that nurturing students was always the primary focus of Castleton’s endeavors.

“The time has come for me to move on, for this campus and student life to have new leadership that has new ideas,” said Stone. “I hope that I’d leave the legacy that we’re in the business of young people finding their passions, and supporting them so that they can go forward.

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