Texas Tech Commencement Coordinator on Retiring After 33 Years
We all have some sort of graduation commencement in our past or our future. Most of them are crowded and take a long time. Can you imagine attending over 200 graduations?
Peggy Flores has been the Commencement Coordinator at Texas Tech for 33 years, and this past round of Tech graduates were Peggy's last to coordinate.
After 38 years at Texas Tech, Peggy is retiring.
We asked Peggy and her daughter Rachel about all of those graduations and got some surprising answers.
What was the funniest graduation moment that Peggy remembers? She says a couple of months ago, a student showed up for commencement in a big pair of boots.
She said that she told him that they weren't allowed and that he would have to remove them, to which he replied: "But I'm Raider Red!"
So in the middle of the commencement proceedings, Peggy stepped up to the microphone and said, "Raider Red, will you come up here and get your boots?"
She said the most special commencement was one in which Queen Noor of Jordan was a guest. She said in addition to the myriad responsibilities associated with transporting and hosting a foreign dignitary, the gift that the queen gave Peggy was the most special.
Peggy said that she thought it was a small gift of a watch. Later, she discovered that it was a gold watch complete with Jordan's crest on it. Peggy said she will be passing the watch along to her children with specific instructions to not put it on eBay or Craigslist!
Rachel Montalvo, Peggy's daughter, has accompanied Peggy to commencement since she was only seven years old.
Rachel says her most memorable commencement was when someone of high importance from Washington D.C. was at Texas Tech for the commencement.
With scores of Secret Service agents also in tow, the scene wasn't typical. Rachel, being an exuberant eight-year-old girl, decided that when the Texas Tech Alma Mater began to play she would raise her little hand like a gun and shout, "Everybody get your guns up!"
Well, young Rachel was swarmed with Secret Service personnel and Peggy had to stand between them and Rachel, saying "Rachel, get your hand down!" Peggy intervened just in time, letting the Secret Service know that everything was OK.
Peggy says that what she most looks forward to is being able to relax and having time to enjoy her children and grandchildren.
She most fondly remembers the looks on parents' faces on graduation day and the smiles on the faces of the graduates. "I like to think I had something to do with that," she said.