- January 24, 2022
- By Karen Shih ’09
From Elvis and Jackson Five concerts at Cole Field House to the blockage of Route 1 by Vietnam War protesters and even the retirement of her own daughter, Annette Sardelli has experienced more unique University of Maryland moments than most of us ever will.
“I have no idea where the time went,” said Sardelli, who retired on Dec. 31 after 60½ years with Facilities Management (FM)—the department’s longest-serving employee. “I’ve just really enjoyed working there, and I’m going to miss all the people.”
She came to the university as a 21-year-old mom of two in 1961, making $2,800 a year, collecting and recording time card entries. She moved over to the payroll office in 1964 and remained there until her retirement.
“There are some paper supply companies out there crying because their sales just went down dramatically,” joked Tim Day, who has worked with Sardelli for 21 years, about her commitment to keeping hard copies of all files. “Annette had great rapport with everyone in FM and considers them her family. Some people even refer to her as ‘Mom.’ She takes care of everyone—she always had a basket of candy on her desk—but you also know not to cross Mom, because she’s so detail-oriented and wants to make sure everything is done just right.”
Since Sardelli first arrived at UMD, the campus and College Park have completely transformed. “Along U.S. 1, the only place I recognize from when I started is [liquor store and bar] Town Hall. There weren’t any high-rises; there were mansions, a go-go place and a Ford dealership.”
One of the highlights of her time at UMD was performances by famous musicians like Harry Belafonte and Neil Diamond, right on campus.
“Cole Field House used to be the center of entertainment in the area,” she said. “We had a young lady who worked in our office who handled all the entertainment coming to campus, and she would give us the inside scoop, so we’d run up the hill to go get tickets.”
Though she wasn’t a huge sports fan, she also attended plenty of basketball games while Coach Lefty Driesell led the Terps, because he was friends with her director and would come hand out tickets in their office.
Working at UMD was a family affair for Sardelli, whose daughter Susan Sardelli-Quage also spent 30 years with FM. Sardelli-Quage was one of just a few women on the crew that hand-painted the basketball court at Cole at the start of each season in the late 1970s, before moving to the Work Control department for the rest of her career.
“We saw each other every day because we worked on the same floor,” said Sardelli-Quage. “She’d bring me coffee and doughnuts, which made everybody jealous, and we’d meet up at The Dairy to have lunch.”
Sardelli-Quage retired in 2006. “I kept telling her, ‘Why don’t we go out at the same time, so you can retire when I retire?’ You need to visit your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren! But she kept saying, ‘No, no, I want to work a few more years’—and that turned into 15!”
When Sardelli finally decided to wrap up her time at UMD, she was tickled that President Darryll J. Pines called to congratulate her. “If we weren’t in a COVID situation, they probably would have invited the governor to my retirement party,” she joked.
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