Sixty-two employees at USF St. Petersburg are responsible for maintenance, custodial work, groundskeeping, mail service and more. Many people don’t realize how much goes into keeping the campus clean and beautiful. Their work often goes unnoticed but without them, the campus would fall apart at the seams.
Doris Griffin, 80, is a member of the USFSP custodial staff. The library is her current ‘stomping ground,’ but during her time at USFSP she has worked all across campus. Griffin has been a university employee for over 12 years and said she doesn’t plan on leaving anytime soon.
“I like to work,” Griffin said with a smile on her face. “I don’t run around. I was always told you get one place and you stay there, if you can.”
She said her favorite part of working at the college is helping people and making friends.
During her Tuesday morning break, Griffin sat down and told a little bit about herself. She came to USFSP after retiring from a custodial position at Eckerd College.
“I left Eckerd College in January 2002 and I came here in March 2002,” she said. “I liked being retired, but didn’t like staying home.”
Griffin is originally from Bradenton, but moved to St. Petersburg later in life. She has 13 siblings and attributes her love of people to growing up in a big family.
“I think maybe that’s why I like people so much,” she said. “I like to help people out whenever I can.”
When she isn’t working, Griffin enjoys shopping with her girlfriends, picking the neighborhood kids up from school, and driving people wherever they need to go.
“I like helping people, I really do,” she said with conviction. “You call, I go.”
She brings a lot of the neighborhood kids to New Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church, where she has been a member since 1959.
In between bites of a tuna fish sandwich, Griffin recalled a conversation she had at church last Sunday. He sought her out, asking if she knew him and though she couldn’t remember his name, she recognized his face. The man told her that she used to drive him and his friends to church and around the neighborhood, and thanked her for everything she did for them.
“She’s constantly working, even in the evenings, taking those kids everywhere. That’s why she’s blessed,” said Kenny Trussell, 57, a mail clerk at USFSP. “A lot of those kids wouldn’t even know about church if it wasn’t for Miss Doris.”
Trussell and ‘Miss Doris’ have been friends for three years. The two often share laughs in the break room, and Trussell looks out for her at work.
“She has a good heart. My hat goes off to her, it really does,” he said.
Griffin is scheduled to have knee surgery soon and said she will miss her friends at USFSP.
“I won’t stay home for too long if I can help it,” she said with a chuckle. “I’ll be back.”
