Nowadays, love letters are about the only kind of mail Bennett said he sees going through Flagler’s mailroom drop box- just one example of how “the whole mail thing has changed,” since Bennett started working at Flagler College in 1995. Nearly 30 years later, he’s preparing for the last few days as Supervisor of Mailroom Services before retirement.
His experience managing mail goes back to 1972, near the end of the Vietnam War, when Bennett was drafted and narrowly escaped being sent to “the big dance.” While briefly stationed in Hawaii, he served as an army mail clerk, volunteering for the role in hopes that he might “get out of” his infantry’s frequent 25-mile road marches.
He didn’t, “they just brought the mail out there.”
It wasn’t the upside he imagined, but being the infantry mail clerk gave Bennett an irreplaceable understanding of the value a single piece of mail can hold. He recalls the common question ‘Do I have any mail?’ carried a certain poignancy coming from a soldier. Like clockwork, the mail came in the morning and Bennett knew exactly who’d received letters each day.
“In most of those cases, I knew they didn't have one,” he said about the soldiers who would often ask. Regardless, he would go downstairs, “open up the mailroom,” and thumb through a stack of mail he’d already looked through that morning. Even if it was hard to break the news when there wasn’t a letter for them, Bennett was glad he could show that he cared about their mail enough to check again.
“At least I cared enough to do that,” Bennett said. “And I do that with the students here. I want them to know that we care about their mail.”
Alumni, employees, students, and friends of Bennett have no doubt that he cares about their mail, and more importantly, that he cares about them.
“Terry always made fetching my mail something to look forward to,” alumna Abigail Stansberry said.
For many, grabbing mail or a package was often “the best excuse to say hi and chat,” with Bennett. And before the mail system went online, students remember getting excited when they got “one of those little package slips.”
“Terry was as much a part of my Flagler life as my professors and roommates,” alumna Tiffany Van Leer said. “For three years he greeted me, asked how my classes were going, or if I had family or friends coming to visit. Such simple interactions meant so much to me.”
Those who worked with him described Bennett as a good colleague and a “wonderful teacher.” He was always kind, patient, hard-working, funny, and ready with the “perfect blend” of parent and friend advice. Caring for students the way Bennett does isn’t a part of the typical college-mailroom-guy job description.
“It’s just who I am,” he said, crediting examples of goodwill shown by his parents as well as the influence of his long-time involvement with The Boy Scouts.
“I always try to cultivate relationships that are trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent,” Bennett said. “And these are words from the Boy Scout Oath that have been a great navigating tool for me throughout my life.”
In a very literal sense, Bennett sees the function and mission of the mailroom as receiving, processing, verifying, sorting, and delivering mail and packages in an accurate and timely manner each day. But in practice, Bennett realized the scope of the mailroom’s mission at Flagler is bigger than that.
“I think it's helping people, giving out packages and mail to students, faculty and staff, seeing people smile, realizing that I have a part in making someone's day better,” Bennett said.
One method of raising spirits was Bennett’s infamous postcard wall. Everyone who knows Bennett, knows that he “loves talking about all of his postcards,” a collection that began with a postcard from the Bahamas.
“When you go home, take some pictures so you can show me,” Bennett once asked a work-study student who made frequent deliveries to the mailroom. “Better yet, send me a postcard!”
Before the mailroom made its move from Ponce to King Street, Bennett’s international postcard collection overflowed a gigantic map. “You never really expect it,” Bennett said about receiving postcards. He often invited international students to come see the postcard wall in hopes of tiding over their homesickness.
“I said, if you send me a picture, a postcard of your hometown, if you get homesick, you come and look at your postcard,” he recalled.
These postcards from around the world were “a testament to the impact” that Bennett had on the Flagler community, but they were also a beacon of joy and comfort for students far from home.
Photo by Scott Smith Winter '07 FC Magazine, courtesy of Flagler College Digital Archives
“As a foreign student, Terry always made me feel welcome,” international alumnus Jakob Ribbing (Sweden) said. “I really appreciated all four years with him.”
The postcards were also catalysts for interesting conversation.
“He’d tell us about the maps in the mailroom and the postcards he got; listening to stories he’d tell us about everything from Flagler to his family to Vietnam,” a former CASE intern, alumnus Joseph McCann said. “It was one of those small human interactions that meant a lot to building a community at Flagler.”
Students picked up on the fact that Bennett knew many of them by name, and it was the simple interactions like this that stood out the most.
Some alumni didn’t have specific memories to share but recalled “a feeling of warmth and comfort.” They just appreciated his “warm smile on the tough days.” He was their “daily encouragement” without knowing it.
Photo credit: Morgan Goodwill
One alumna, Dejah Griffin, said she hope he “feels proud of the difference,” he made in the students’ lives.
“I can’t remember my mailbox number….but I remember Terry,” alumna Jenny Hedrick said. “He always knew if there was a package waiting before I even checked my box. I was young and egocentric, and unfortunately never learned much about him, but he was kind and interested in all of us, which is probably what we all needed,” Jenny Hedrick said.
Beyond kindness and genuine interest in the students, Bennett was committed to doing his job well, no matter the circumstances. When alumnus Jake Cryan lived in Cedar Hall, someone stole a birthday card with a Visa gift card that his grandparents had sent. Cryan said Terry went full-on detective and even tracked down where the gift card was used.
“We were able to get to the bottom of it and solve the issue,” Cryan said. “This story is a testament to Terry’s dedication to Flagler, the community, and its students.”
“Thank you for all that you have done for Flagler College and the impact you’ve had on decades of students,” Cryan wrote in a note to Bennett. “Best of luck in your retirement- just let us know where to send the postcards!”
Several photos featured in this article are courtesy of the Flagler College Archives. To learn more about College Archives, visit their website at https://library.flagler.edu/college-archives/
