Dixie State University faculty, staff and students are mourning the loss of a widely-known executive assistant.
Ginger Alldredge served as an administrative assistant to the social and behavioral science department, and she was also the executive assistant to the vice president of student affairs at DSU. Alldredge died Sept. 10, and a viewing was held Friday in the Diamond Valley Latter-day Saints Chapel from 6-8 p.m.
Peter Gitau, the vice president of student affairs, said Alldredge was one of the first employees he hired when he started working at DSU last year. Although she didn’t know much about the student affairs division when she was first hired, Gitau said Alldredge was driven to be his executive assistant because she knew she would be working closely with students.
“She had this commitment to students because this is not a position that anyone could do who feels bothered by students,” Gitau said. “She just came across as one who loved the opportunity to interact with students.”
Hannah Tua’one, a part-time student affairs administrator, said working along side Alldredge made it feel as if coming to work was a treat.
“She was enjoyable to be around,” Tua’one said. “She didn’t make you feel like she was working you to the ground, so the fact that we’re going to have that void in our department, it’s going to be a big change for us.”
Alldredge was the kind of person who went above and beyond what was expected of her in the workplace, Gitau said. Her projects were always completed on time, and she never complained about her workload, Gitau said.
“She told me that the challenge she had set for herself was to make sure for once she could stay a step ahead of me, and she succeeded a number of times,” Gitau said. “For her, any project never meant more work, it meant another opportunity.”
She was so dedicated to her job, Gitau said, it was a struggle just trying to get her to take a lunch break. Alldredge helped Gitau stabilize the student affairs division and create the student success unit.
When Gitau was informed of Alldredge’s passing, he said he was initially in disbelief.
“I guess I am still dealing with the fact that maybe it is not true, yet I know it is,” Gitau said. “I worked so closely with her; she was more than an employee, she was like family.”
Aside from her dedication to DSU, Alldredge also left a lasting impression on some students around campus.
Kendall Pitts, a senior communication major from Las Vegas, said Alldredge was a charismatic woman who had a drive to help anyone in need.
“If I could take anything from knowing [Alldredge] it would be this… be a light for someone,” Pitts said in a Facebook post. “Life is never ever [too] busy to be nice, it is never to busy to say sorry, it is never to busy to forgive, it is never to busy to love, and it is never to busy to be someone’s friend.”
