Zona FloodCataloging Specialist
PLU is a place of higher education, and we like to think of learning as an important value. But if you want to meet someone with learning as a true core value, the kind of person we hope to be graduating into the world on a regular basis, introduce yourself to Zona Flood. Zona was a high school valedictorian, much of her professional life has been associated with learning and institutions of learning, and in her personal life she routinely seeks out learning opportunities.
Learning is for Zona a way of life. "Learning is fun," she says. "There's always something new." Like giraffes, of which she has dozens, including a seven-foot-tall wooden one hewn by a chainsaw. Or some of the places she's seen from astride the Floods' Gold Wing touring motorcycle. And her many vicarious adventures experienced through her hobby of reading.
Zona married her high school sweetheart shortly after graduating from Central Washington University with a teaching certificate, and taught first grade for 2 years in Clovis, NM where they lived while he finished his stint in the USAF. She wasn't particularly fond of the grade school classroom, though, yet it was a good life-experience to learn early on that being a good learner doesn't necessarily make one a good teacher.
Realizing teaching wasn't for her, Zona moved on to other things, like raising three sons. (These sons, by the way, have provided Zona with four grandchildren, about whom she says, along the lines of a popular book title, "If I had known grandchildren where so much fun, I would have had them first.") Learning remained an important part of Zona's spirit, so after a time she returned to college for a degree as library technician, soon after which in 1990 she joined the PLU library's Technical Services department. Even now Zona speaks of the fascination of learning something new every day, including the library's new computer system.
Two years in the beautiful but not-so-green Southwest provided another important learning experience, that of learning to really appreciate the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest. Born and raised in western Washington, she learned that she likes parks better when they have trees instead of sand dunes, and lakes better when they are made by Nature and are not just man-made reservoirs. "I'm a true Northwesterner-I probably even have webbed feet!" she explains.
An important lesson learned, indeed!