The Holmes Student Center was an its infancy when a young Air Force veteran made his way to DeKalb and found work in the HSC’s kitchen.

“When I first came here there was nothing past Annie Glidden [Road],” said John Ernest, a kitchen stores laborer. “I started off making $1.80.”

Ernest is celebrating his 40th anniversary today as one of the longest-running employees at NIU. He’s been employed since 1965, three years after the HSC was established.

The southern Illinois native said he had just finished a four-and-a-half year term in the Air Force when his parents decided to move.

“I needed a place to stay; I didn’t have any money to move on my own,” Ernest said.

The job at NIU did not start as a career move for Ernest.

“I was just like anyone else; I said I would try it for five or six months and see what happened,” he said.

However, the months turned to years and Ernest became well-known for his dedication and loyalty to NIU and his co-workers.

“John gets here every morning at 4:30 a.m. or so, about an hour before he has to start, and gets everything ready for us,” said Mary Lou Raih, one of Ernest’s co-workers at the Blackhawk Food Court.

Ernest has a reputation for walking to work every day, regardless of rain or snow. Many of the center’s employees have a favorite memory of Ernest’s stellar attendance.

“I don’t know if he ever called in sick,” Raih said. “The one time he left early it was in an ambulance. He came up to me and said, ‘Mary, I don’t think I’m feeling well.’”

Raih said because of this extreme dedication, Blackhawk employees like to think of Ernest as “our book of endless knowledge.”

Raih said Ernest has earned the maximum amount of vacation days a Blackhawk employee can earn, having accumulated some 2,400 hours of vacation time.

“He doesn’t take vacation; he never misses work,” said Pam Pittman, an employee at the food court.

Ernest said he never thinks to call in.

“We were struggling for money at the beginning so I always came,” he said.