Melveta Walker’s Library Career Was a
Dream Come True
By Todd Fuqua
By the time Melveta Walker (BAE 65) returned
Melveta had then planned to attend the
Melveta was told she needed at least eight
to ENMU to work in the Golden Library in
University of New Mexico and pursue
people to make the class, so she walked all
1988, she’d already had quite the career.
a nursing degree, but her fiancé – later
through the library and talked to everyone
husband Jerry Walker (BS 64) – said he
working there. By the time she completed
wouldn’t be able to visit her that much,
her trek around the library, she had a list of
since he still had to milk the cows on
11 people who were ready to sign up for the
her father’s farm.
library science courses.
“So, I decided to go to ENMU to get an
Melveta and Jerry returned to Portales in
education degree, but I didn’t have any more
Febrary 1998 after 25 years on the Navajo
scholarships, so I started working in the
reservation. She said her return to ENMU
library,” Melveta said.
was inevitable, or at least her husband
One semester into her college career, she
thought so.
browsed the class catalog, and found a
“Jerry said that it was God’s gift. ‘It’s what
number of library science courses.
you’re meant to do,’” Melveta recalled Jerry
“Boy was I excited. I ran to see Dr. (James)
telling her.
After graduating with a degree in history and a teaching license, the Eastern alum headed to Arizona to work on the Navajo Reservation as a librarian – the first full-time librarian the tribe ever had, according to Melveta. It was – she thought – the culmination of her life’s ambition. It was an ambition that later turned into a 30-plus year career at ENMU as the director of the Golden Library, a career that closes after this spring semester. Born and raised in Portales, she planned to earn a library science degree, but at the time,
Dyke (the library director at the time) and
“When I worked on the reservation, we had
the closest schools that had library science
asked him who was going to teach those
a self-evaluation each year, asking what
programs were in Denver and Dallas, and
classes,” she remembers. “He said, ‘probably
my ideal job would be. I always put, ‘being a
were both expensive private schools.
no one.’ I said ‘but they’re in the catalog!’”
librarian at Eastern New Mexico University.’”
Young Alumni Success
Shelby Kirkes Oklahoma City Dodgers Shelby Kirkes (BS 15) joined the Oklahoma City Dodgers in August 2016 as the manager of special events. In December 2019, Shelby was honored by the NextGen Under 30 program, highlighting young Millennials who are already making significant professional strides in Oklahoma. “Being an award recipient came as an incredible surprise,” she said. “I was also accepted into a program called LOYAL (Linking Oklahoma’s Young Adult Leaders), which offers me a hands-on opportunity to engage in the community by working with civic leaders. ENMU’s culture of service planted a seed early on to give me that desire to serve outside of the workplace. “My parents and several other family members graduated from Eastern, so attending ENMU was a natural first step,” Shelby said. “Eastern really catered to my desire to get involved.”
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Green & Silver | May 2020
