Rosalind N. Cranor Retires
After thirty-eight years of teaching Accounting at Virginia Tech, Rosalind has hung up her chalk.
In the time Rosalind has been at Tech she has seen many changes in the school and the town. When she started teaching at Virginia Tech in January of 1966, she joined a faculty of five. William "Shorty" Gay was the department chairman and she still remembers vividly walking into his office for her job interview. He sat behind his desk and pondered hesitantly. He muttered almost inaudibly "I don't want to be the first, but I don't want to be the last" referring to hiring a woman. She may have been the first full-time faculty woman in the College of Business but she certainly wasn't the last.
For thirty-eight years she specialized in presenting accounting principles to all Tech students who required this basic discipline. For the past twenty years she has been coordinator for all sections of Principles of Accounting. A few years ago Rosalind and Professor Don Saftner wrote three computerized practice sets which are used in several schools in accounting principles courses.
Rosalind is an avid "treasure hunter" and collector. She has to be careful because if she gets two of something she might start collecting it. She loves to search for "treasures". Among other things, she collects (or has collected) miniatures, small old bisque dolls, Steiff bears, old Indian turquoise jewelry, 50's rock 'n roll memorabilia, early movie memorabilia, railroad locks, old poker chips, early cartoon items, and "you name it". Her most recent interest is Danish modern furniture and artistic items.
In 1956, Rosalind saw a new rock and roll singer in concert and started buying records, magazines, and dime-store items that sported this singer's image. These things were tucked away in a box in the attic when she left for college. In the early 70's she ran across the box and this inspired her to search for more Elvis Presley collectibles. This collection grew to the point where, after some additional research, she wrote a 400-page reference book/price guide for Elvis Presley memorabilia. (Shortly after the book was published, Rosalind was invited to go on the Gary Collins morning TV show but she declined.) This book was printed in three editions but is now out-of-print. Unfortunately, she sold her Elvis Presley collection when she thought the values had topped out. Little did she know.
A few years ago Rosalind's collecting bug caused a business to evolve. You can keep only so much so Rosalind opened a booth in an antiques mall. She now has three booths in Memory Lane, a large antiques mall in Christiansburg, Virginia. In anticipation of retirement she has stockpiled enough antiques and collectibles to keep her going for several years. (She has even had to rent two storage units to keep all of her finds until they can make their way to the booth!) In retirement she will have more time to get out and search auctions, flea markets, antiques shops and yard sales for elusive items.
She will miss the college routine, the duties, the students, and especially the faculty and staff friends but will enjoy being able to spend more time with her family and to devote more time to her hobbies and antiques business.
