(Read the rest of this story in the Fall 2023 issue of The ECHO Magazine.)

Five LBC | Capital employees, who are also all alumni, have seen many changes over the course of their time at the college. Deb Hunt (’78), Karen Perago (’85), Lisa Swarr (’87), Micah Story (’98) and Ben Eisemann (’10) have a combined total of 151 years of professional service to the college.

Five longtime alumni employees, with more than 150 years of service to LBC, have seen many changes at the college. From left, Lisa Swarr (’87), Karen Perago (’85), Ben Eisemann (’10), Micah Story (’98) and Deb Hunt (’78).

LBC’s campus has changed and the technology it uses has evolved over 90 years, but society has also shifted. While at LBC, these five employees have experienced several notable national and global events throughout their time at the college.

Perago, Hunt and Swarr were all at LBC at the time of the Challenger explosion in January 1986 and remember that day well. Similarly, on a fall day 15 years later, Eisemann said he’ll never forget his arrival to LBC’s campus as a commuter student. He drove to school the morning of September 11 and searched for a television set, which wasn’t readily available on campus at the time. He ended up in the bookstore, where employee and alumnus Eric Weaver (’00) was working. They listened to Tom Brokaw on the radio, updating listeners of the news.

“I was two to three weeks into classes here and didn’t know who any of these people were,” Eisemann recalled of standing in the bookstore with others listening to the tragic news. “Eric turns the radio off and he says, ‘I think we need to take a moment,’ and he starts leading ‘Peace Like a River,’ and everybody just starts singing in this really mellow tone, and then he said a quick prayer and turned the radio back on and we listened for another hour.”

Perago also remembers where she was on that day. One of her printing companies was having a seminar near Reading, Pa., and after it was canceled, she recalls driving back to campus thinking, ‘OK Lord, if you’re going to come today, am I right with you?’”

Hunt remembers receiving an email from Story that morning asking if anyone had heard the news. “That’s how I found out that anything was going on that day,” she said.

While society and the landscape of higher education has evolved throughout their time at LBC, the mission of LBC has remained the same, which is a large part of why many of them have devoted their careers to the college.

“What the school’s mission was and still is—it’s continually seeing students being trained to go out and live a biblical worldview,” Swarr explained. “I enjoy working with students, going to sporting events, musicals and being supportive of different activities.”

Perago’s vision for the work she wanted to do has been fulfilled by her time at LBC. “I always wanted to do graphic work for ministry,” she said. “Being able to invest in other people and be able to see this place grow and do things that has value for my degree as well. I had a great time here—so for every student coming, I want them to have that same connection with faculty and staff that I had.”

For Story, he has seen the Lord provide for his family through LBC from the time he was a student until now. “I joined the staff because, primarily, I just needed a job,” he said. “I was engaged and needed a way to provide for my family and the Lord has continued to meet that need through LBC.”

Story’s wife, Jennifer (’04), has served as LBC’s Manager of Editorial Services in the Digital Learning Department and his youngest daughter, Jay (’26), is a Communication major. “I embrace the mission, I recognize the investing in this generation of students and, even now, as my youngest is currently attending LBC, it’s fun to know that she was delivering mail as a 3-year-old and she’s now working across the hall in the bookstore. I’ve trusted the leadership, and I recognize the direction we’re going is still of the Lord and His blessing. It’s just a privilege to be a part of it.”

For Hunt, it’s always been LBC. “I’ve always felt this was where God wanted me to be,” she said. “Even though the job changed tremendously, I’ve just always felt that way from the day I started working here.”

The five staff members and friends reminisce in the Charles & Gloria Jones Library.

Eisemann enjoys seeing the far-reaching impact LBC has. “We’re a relatively young college, but to have a global impact is really neat,” he said. “A lot of us spend more time in supporting roles than interacting with students, but when you do meet these students, (they) are hungry for truth, and when they come here, they get biblical truth and instruction. And it just accelerates them and is exciting to watch.”

Added Perago, “I used to say students come in (to LBC), and God is still the God of their mom and dad. But when they come through here in these four years, God has to become their own; they have to find God in their own way. They also have to find themselves. They’re becoming the independent person they have to be to walk away from here four years from now. So it’s fun to see that evolution.”

Having left LBC’s employment and returned, Eisemann has spent time reflecting on his other employment experiences. “It reminded me of how much of a job is the people you work with—less about what you’re actually doing and more the people you’re doing it with,” he said.

Perago agrees. “Over the years, it’s not uncommon for employees to have deep friendships with other employees. Those of us that have been around, we still keep a friendship in different ways.”

Swarr feels the same way and added that in the library team meetings, Dr. Mark Draper, Director of Library Services, says, “We’re not just coworkers, we’re friends.”

At the end of the day, each one of these longtime LBC employees realizes that their work is unto the Lord. “It’s the fun journey of seeing the way God provides in extraordinary ways that we never thought He could,” said Perago. “It’s because He’s faithful and as we’ve been faithful, He has blessed. And I think that’s the most extraordinary thing.”