Marion Friedman has received four parties from her co-workers: one for her graduation, one to celebrate her 25th anniversary at Penn, one for her 65th birthday, and another when she turned 70.
This fall, perhaps her associates in the College's advising office will give the administrative assistant one last bash--to bid her farewell. "I hope to retire on the last day of November," said Mrs. Friedman, "unless they kick me out the door before then."
Not likely. "Marion is well-respected by everyone who works with her," said Linda Kaelin, the College's business administrator.
A Penn employee for nearly three decades, Mrs. Friedman first came to the University in 1960 as a student. While her father-in-law was in a nursing home, "a woman was brought in who couldn't talk English," Mrs. Friedman explained. "She was from Vienna." In order to converse with the woman, Mrs. Friedman decided to learn German and enrolled in a course at Penn.
Initially, Mrs. Friedman had no intention of majoring in German: She audited her first class. However, fellow students and Sidney Friedman, her late husband, convinced her to pursue a degree. She held a day job, so she went to school in the evening. Never a driver, she hit the books while riding the bus and train. "That's where I did most of my studying," she recalled.
In 1966, Penn canceled the night classes that Mrs. Friedman needed to graduate. To earn a degree, she would have to go to school in the afternoon. Rather than abandon her studies, she took a job as a secretary in Penn's chemistry department and continued her education during her lunch breaks. In 1981, she received an A.B. in German from the College of General Studies.
"It took me 21 years to graduate, one course at a time here and there, but I did it," Mrs. Friedman said.
Four years before graduating, she transferred from the chemistry department to the College's advising office, where she now handles transfer credits. "She has a genuine concern for the students," Ms. Kaelin said. "That's where her heart lies--with the students. And she'll follow through until she knows the students' needs have been met."
Despite her serious work ethic, Mrs. Friedman has a lighter side. "We'll certainly miss her sense of humor," offered Dr. Kent Peterman, assistant dean for academic affairs for the College.
When she's not delivering punch lines, Mrs. Friedman is demonstrating her agility. According to Dr. Flora Cornfield, the College's assistant dean for advising and study abroad, Mrs. Friedman has been known to do somersaults at Christmas parties.
"They said, 'Don't do them anymore, you're embarrassing us,' but I'm 71 and still limber," she said, proving the statement by kicking up her leg and touching her outstretched palm with her toes.
Mrs. Friedman has always made an effort to stay fit. Her extracurricular activities at Penn reflect her interest in athletics. During the '80s, for example, she helped organize Penn's Ice Skating Club--before the University started one officially. In addition to participating in sports groups, she was active in community-relations and employee organizations, and served on the Open Expression Committee for four years.
Ice skating may no longer be part of Mrs. Friedman's typical routine, but stretching and other simple exercises are--whether she's at home, at the office, or even standing at a bus stop. "While I'm waiting for the bus I walk backwards, but I make like I'm looking for the bus to come," she said. "Because if you walk backward, you're using different muscles than when you walk forward."
Dancing also keeps her in shape. "If the radio's playing 'Chattanooga Choo-Choo,' I'll jitterbug," she said.
Mrs. Friedman developed an interest in dance at the Northeastern Hebrew Orphans Home, where she lived from age four to age 18. She performed in the shows the children put on for the home's supporters, and she took dancing lessons.
Mrs. Friedman's parents divorced when she was young. Her father later died in a hunting accident, and her mother, suffragist Reba Gomborov, couldn't care for her. "She had some hardships," Mrs. Friedman explained, "and it was the Depression time, you know."
Every Sunday, Ms. Gomborov would visit her daughter at the home; and later in life, Mrs. Friedman looked after her ailing mother. "For a few years, I didn't go to night school," she said. "I worked, came home and took care of her."
Although Mrs. Friedman considers herself "liberated," she doesn't share all of her mother's attitudes. For example, she prefers not to be addressed as Ms. Friedman, pointing out that "Ms. is a designation for manuscript, and I am not a sheaf of paper."
Never a mother herself, Mrs. Friedman participated in the Big Sister Program for 10 years. Perhaps the only thing she loves as much as children are animals. A staunch vegetarian since the age of 11, she is vice president of Beauty Without Cruelty, an organization of animal activists who, among other things, urge manufacturers not to use ivory.
In addition to rallying for animals' rights worldwide, Mrs. Friedman performs animal charity close to home. During her lunch break, she feeds the squirrels and birds around campus. Now that she's leaving Penn, she is concerned about the future of her furry and feathered friends.
"That's why when I retire, I want to do volunteer work, and I want to do it near here," Mrs. Friedman said. "I called the hospital, and I want to work in the children's department, so I can still come around and feed the animals."
