At La Salle, marking 50 years on the job

Dominic Galante remembers trying to step around anti-military protesters blocking the doors to La Salle College's administrative offices in the 1960s.

He remembers when La Salle - now a university - first admitted women in the 1970s.

But most of all, he remembers the question one of the top college vice presidents asked when he learned that Galante had left a job on a Friday and was ready to start work at La Salle on a Monday.

"Aren't you nervous that he's a job hopper?" the worried administrator asked Galante's supervisor.

He didn't even hop out of the department.

For the last 50 years, Galante, 68, of Abington, has worked in the registrar's office at La Salle.

He started as an administrative assistant on Nov. 5, 1962. Now he is the registrar.

He supervises a department of nine and is responsible for rostering classes and maintaining records for 6,600 students, plus alumni.

On Thursday, the university had a party for him to celebrate his 50 years on campus.

"Dominic Galante is zealous for the students of La Salle," said Brother John McGoldrick, assistant provost at La Salle.

In this time of layoffs, it can be a challenge for someone to keep a job for 50 weeks, let alone 50 years.

"It is unusual," said Kate Nelson, a human resources instructor at Temple University's Fox School of Business. "I think it is generational."

Although there is anecdotal information that the number of jobs that people hold over a lifetime has increased over time, the U.S. Labor Department has a surprising paucity of data on the subject.

However, since 1979, the department has been tracking 9,964 "late boomers," born from 1957 to 1964, all younger than Galante, who was born in 1944.

From the age of 18 on, they had held an average of 11.3 jobs by 2011, when the oldest was 53. Galante had two.

He was 18, a recent graduate of Northeast Catholic High School, when he began to work at La Salle, albeit reluctantly.

He had been working at a real estate company, when his typing teacher called about two jobs.

One, at Kraft Foods, paid $95 a week; La Salle offered $50. Given the difference, Galante chose Kraft - even though his siblings advised selecting La Salle, for the tuition benefit. When Kraft fell through, he wound up at La Salle.

In 1969, after six years of night school at La Salle, Galante earned a management degree. His three children also graduated from La Salle.

"It's like a second home," he said. "I like what I do and I like the people I work with."

Galante has lots of stories, about kids who try to trick their parents into thinking they had good grades when they were earning F's, about professors who routinely blow deadlines, about university politics, and how sometimes, to survive, you have to learn to pick your battles.

His office smells like cider. It's a scented candle. "I'm big into ambiance," he said. A sign on an end table reads: It's the Students, Stupid.

His staff says he has convinced them that their work is important, that accuracy and speed matter, and that students and alumni rely on them to get the job done.

"He's not afraid to roll up his sleeves and get to work," said Cheryl Hoffman, a secretary. At busy times, he picks up the phone, stuffs envelopes and works the counter.

"The job must have brought him a lot of satisfaction," said Nelson.

The students at La Salle and Temple probably can't imagine a life like Galante's, she said. But in these turbulent times, "many of our kids would love to have a job like that, where they could stay in one place and grow."