Administration building office 8J might seem just like another ordinary counselor’s office, but inside is a not-so-ordinary man. His name is Glen Bushnell.

He has been teaching and counseling at De Anza ever since it was built. Bushnell was one of the first employees to ever be hired at De Anza, and this will be his last quarter here. At the age of 75 he is finally leaving us.

Bushnell’s last day will be June 23. He will be back in the fall to help out with the registration. “Fall is my favorite period at De Anza, with young kids coming in [with] their whole lives ahead of them.”

One of the main reasons that Bushnell is leaving is because he wants to spend more time with his grandchildren, “No success can compensate for failure in the family. I don’t think we own children, we just get an opportunity to spend time with them.”

Bushnell has been teaching accounting while counseling at the same time for the last 40 years, “I love the combination of teaching and counseling at the same time. I think I’m a better teacher because I counsel and I’m a better counselor because I teach, I get to see both areas of students lives.”

Bushnell’s eyes just light up when he talks about counseling, “Being a counselor is a lot like being a parent, and the one thing that is essential to being a good counselor is you have to have love. The one thing that I am most proud of is that I’ve had an opportunity to work with some of the most bright, capable and dedicated students.” Maybe that is why Bushnell still gets calls from students from 25 years ago to have lunch with him.

Over the course of 40 years Bushnell has been so dedicated to his work that he has only missed one day of work because of illness, which happened this quarter when he caught the flu. And only 15 days were missed because of personal reasons.

Bushnell was born and raised in southern Utah. He served his country and joined the Asianatic Pacific theatre of operations in Philippines during World War II.”Military was not my idea of enjoyment, but worthwhile. It helped me grow up fast,” said Bushnell.

After serving in the military, Bushnell went to Brigham Young University and graduated in three years. He then went on to get two degrees in business and a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in accounting.

Bushnell helped his wife who had a master’s degree in nursing with some of the patients. Through helping her, he got turned on to the idea of helping people. “I like the idea of helping people, it’s a rather positive thing,” That is when and why he decided to take up counseling.

Bushnell first took up teaching 51 years ago. He first started in Bakersfield, then got hired at El Camino before Foothill was even built. He was hired as

one of De Anza’s first employees. Bushnell said that he picked out his office that he is still using to this day on the construction blueprint of De Anza.

When talking about De Anza’s success, Bushnell said “I think De Anza builds on the backs of giants.

“We’ve been riding on the crest of the wave. We’ve had tremendous leaders from the start that had great visions, from Dr. Flint to Dr. Siemen and Dr. DeHart. They were the ones who hired me.”

Bushnell’s whole family has been supportive of his work, not only did all of his children go to school at De Anza for some time, but both of his daughters have graduated here. Bushnell’s wife was also a part time counselor for quite some time at DA.

Bushnell’s contribution to De Anza has been more than just counseling and teaching.

He was the one who initiated the idea of having Saturday classes 30 years ago, in the fall of 1970.

“We had this beautiful campus that’s not being utilized, there are lots of working students who could use it,” said Bushnell.

From that very first Saturday, Bushnell has been the Saturday dean. He has spent over 900 Saturday’s at De Anza and only missed five Saturdays over that span.

Another reason that Bushnell decided to call it quits was that he wants to do a lot of traveling. “I believe that you should live each day to the fullest, life is a very fragile thing. I want to do some traveling while I can still enjoy it, I want to go to the Cayman Islands, Utah, Arizona, and then some more international traveling.”

Bushnell actually will have a very busy schedule as soon as he says goodbye to this job.

He will be taking his family to Hawaii in August, then to the Mediterranean in October, then to top it all off he will be taking his second Big Bang cruise in the Caribbean this November.

Bushnell does leave De Anza with one regret though, “I wish I could have convinced the administration how important it is for students to posses basic skills. I think we’ve done a great job with the higher level classes, but basic skills should be focused on more.”

One last word of wisdom from Bushnell, “It really bothers me to see students smoking, I’ve lost some really good friends over the years to lung cancer. I’m 75 years old and I’m enjoying life, and I want to keep on enjoying life.

“You should take care of your body, I even get up every morning at 5:30 just to exercise.”