Information & Technology Services

Carol Walther

Help Desk Specialist

Carol Walther is quintessential PLU. Committed to a life of service, she finds value and satisfaction in helping others as much in her personal as in her professional life. And through the years she has had many memorable experiences assisting family, friends, and colleagues in their quests to do their very best.

At present a help desk specialist and mainstay of the Information Resources IT help desk, Carol has had a wide variety of opportunities to help others over the years. She's had good and bad days like everyone else, but rarely has she gone home bored. She's has worked in an insurance agency, processed data for a Christmas tree company (remember card punch machines?), supported computing operations for Parker Paint (two tours of duty with them, actually), and provided customer service for the Wall St. Journal in Federal Way before coming to PLU in 1998.

The common denominators in these jobs have been service and computing, just the right match for her current role at our help desk. "Many see computers as tools," Carol says, "but are intimidated by them. I try to help them see it's just a machine that we can make do what it needs to do." Clearly her career niche -- customer support for computing -- has found a welcome home at PLU.

The third-generation daughter of German and German-Russian forebears, Carol has also nurtured a close-knit family. After an interesting start on their marriage when Carol's father followed the newly-weds for 30 miles out of their hometown in South Dakota as they set out on their honeymoon, and after spontaneously settling in Rapid City for a year-and-a-half when their car broke down there on that same trip, Carol and husband Dale moved on to their original destination of Western Washington. In time they raised three children -- Randy, 37; Todd, 34; and Carrie, 26, all lifelong Washington residents who expect to remain here even if their parents retire to another part of the country in five years or so.