When the Island County Commissioners lose their three leading ladies to retirement next month, the women will take with them a combined 80 years of institutional knowledge as well as warm, smiling faces that have become fixtures in the office.

Ellen Meyer, Jan Ford and Donna Benson call June 29 their official retirement date although they will be leaving the office before then by using annual leave. Meyer’s last day was last Wednesday and there was no shortage of hugs and reminiscing.

“The job has changed immensely over the years,” said Meyers, administrative assistant and office manager of 33 years. “It was a one-girl show when I came in 1974 and we’re up to all three of us now. And back then the commissioners were only there occasionally.”

Ford, executive secretary for almost 30 years, was hired as the workload increased.

“Before me, it was one person, two filing cabinets,” she said.

The county offices of today are markedly different from those decades ago. When Meyer began, she was in the office that Central Services now occupies.

“It was the old jail,” she said. “Next to it was still jail cells and jail beds. It was a little rough.”

The next move was across the street to the annex building where Meyer set up camp upstairs.

“Anybody getting to the commissioners office had to go through the health department,” she remembered. “We were in a small office, all the commissioners and me. You couldn’t get out the door if you had a filing cabinet open.”

The next move saw Meyer and the commissioners moving downstairs in the annex and sharing an office with the Department of Emergency Management. Then they moved upstairs again.

“We moved to a partitioned off corner in engineering in Public Works,” Ford said. “The coroner was in our office. During that time the county elected their first coroner. We’d never had one, so we needed to put him somewhere.”

“The coroner shared a desk with a commissioner from Camano who was only there on certain days and the other days of the week the coroner used it,” Meyer added. “Can you say we’ve come a long way baby?”

When Benson, the administrative secretary of 18 years, came onboard the ladies were across the street from the courthouse and annex in what was called the Kaul Building. Under duress from Meyer, Ford recounted one memorable experience in the office.

“There was a big sign outside that said Kaul Building,” Ford said. “Some lively older gentleman opened the door and looked in at Ellen and I and said, ‘Well, this is the Kaul Building, you must be the call girls. We just lost it.”

The commissioners finally moved upstairs in the courthouse where they now conduct their business. Even in the expansive office, space is a precious commodity.

“We have over 700 major topics,” said Benson, who counted each one. “We’ve already filled this place up.”

Changing digs was only one of the evolutionary steps the women took in their decades of service. Technology also grew by leaps and bounds.

“The technology aspect is the biggest thing,” Meyer said. “We were using typewriters. The auditor’s office was doing hand payroll and checks. We used to come back from a commissioners meeting, I would put out a rough draft of the minutes on the typewriter and once those made it through the commissioners we had to do a final on these big, huge sheets. They had to be completely retyped and retyped with every single document that happened that day.”

“Including the entire county budget at budget time,” Ford added. “Any mistakes and it was the ol’ typewriter eraser.”

Computers changed everything. And scared Benson to death.

“Computers were entirely new to me,” she said. “I hadn’t really worked on them that much at all. I came just before a holiday, so everybody left, of course. I was low man on the totem pole. And they left me there alone. This was within the first two weeks I started. They came back after the holiday and Jan’s hard drive had crashed.”

“She was sure she did it,” Ford said. Benson still believes she was responsible for the computer catastrophe.

Although the three revered county employees are being succeeded by extremely capable replacements, the learning curve will be steep.

“The processes used in the commissioners office basically were built by us,” Ford said. “There really weren’t any standard practices when Ellen came. There’s a lot of it that you don’t think to put on paper because you just know it. We’ve dealt with it so long it’s just commonplace to us.”

Debbie Thompson and Ingrid Smith moved over from the prosecutor’s office and will serve as the new Meyer and Ford, respectively. Pam Dill from Planning and Community Development will fill Benson’s formidable shoes.

“They are just fitting in wonderfully,” Meyer said. “They have very good experience.”

Retirement has not been an easy process. Bittersweet, most definitely. And chaotic. Meyer is reveling in the idea of no more Monday commissioners meetings.

“Right now I just want to play,” she said. She and her husband, Jay, will travel in their motor home for three-and-a-half weeks in Eastern Washington and visit family. “Then we’ll come back, regroup and take care of things, and see where we want to go next.”

Ford will also travel with her husband Larrie as much as possible while enjoying her grandchildren. Working where she was raised has been a dream come true for the Coupeville resident.

“We’re definitely not moving,” she said. “My roots are firmly planted. I was born here and to get a job in a town where you grew up less than a mile from where I live, it was a match made in heaven. I’ve been so fortunate.”

Benson is moving to Richland with her husband Graham.

“I hate to leave Whidbey Island, but all our family is in Eastern Washington,” she said. “The family beckons.”

Benson will work part-time for her son in his insurance and financial services office. The irony is not lost on the mother.

“It’s going to be a nice change to have him pay me,” she said with a laugh.

During their years together, the three women have worked cohesively in their happy microcosm. Commissioner Mike Shelton has repeatedly told the trio how refreshing it is to come into an office where there is no bickering or inner-office politicking.

“We’ve never had a disagreement,” Benson said.

“We’ve never thrown any punches,” Ford quipped.

Meyer said the women already have plans to stay in touch and rendezvous when circumstances allow.

During Meyer’s tenure, she has been through 18 different commissioners, Ford has worked with 17 commissioners, and Benson a mere nine.

“It’s been challenging, but fun,” Ford said. “There’s never been a dull moment.”