Melvin V. Buck
Biographical sketch of Melvin Buck, personnel director. This and other articles may be found in the University Archives.
Citation for this article is: "Profile of: Melvin V. Buck," Pieces of Eight, March 15, 1986.
Melvin V. Buck, who grew up pushing a plow and trapping rabbits on a rural Pitt County farm and who "came home" almost by accident to get his college degrees and make a career at East Carolina, is often regarded as a father-figure by many ECU staff employees.
This may be easily understood, says Buck, because of his role as the university's veteran director of personnel. Soft-spoken and polite, he is a man who prefers to work quietly behind the scenes and shun the limelight. He prides himself on being a good listener.
"Much of our job involves listening," He explains. "And we serve very much as counselor. Every person has a problem of some sort. It's only natural that an employee will look for someone to turn to, to offer advice and counsel, when these problems come to the surface. It happens quite often," he says.
"You have to have compassion," Buck believes, describing the counseling, mediating and the day-to-day decision-making involved in hiring and firing."There are always crises, troubles, problems -- major or minor, personal or job-related -- that may not be immediately apparent."A Sea of Paperwork
When Melvin Buck became personnel officer for East Carolina College 23 years ago, student enrollment was only about 4,000. Since, then, the enrollment -- and the number of university employees -- has nearly quadrupled.
He estimates that as personnel director he has hired in excess of 4,000 staff employees -- perhaps as many as 6,000 counting the School of Medicine. The university now has 2,800 full-time employees, including faculty and key administrators, and Buck's 15-member Personnel Department operates two separate systems for EPA and SPA employees.
In both cases, it maintains all of the individual files, handles all of the paperwork, administers faculty and staff benefits and makes many personnel decisions. In doing this, Buck insists that certain basic principles -- as true now as they were 23 years ago -- must apply to be successful. One is putting people first.Working With People
"You must never forget that you are working with people and people's lives," he says. "You must center attention on people, whoever they may be, and consider their needs, their desires, their goals in life."
Buck's ground rules for dealing with people include fairness, open communication, understanding and an atmosphere without fear. Whether an employee or an applicant, he says, "you want the person to feel comfortable. After all, what they are going to do is invest their life . . ."
"You never turn anyone away," he says. "You interview as many as you possibly can, regardless of what they have to offer. As far as management is concerned, there must be willingness to work with individuals and respect their needs."
In personnel work, Buck says, "you have to be people-oriented." In the department, he insists on the team approach. "We consult for views and suggestions, and pool our thoughts and ideas. We work very hard to reach logical, rational decisions," Buck says. "We don't make any hasty decisions."Almost By Accident
Financial aid for college was scarce when Buck, the eldest of five children of a farm family living near Black Jack, graduated from the old Chicod High School. When he enrolled at N.C. State, it meant interrupting his studies from time to tiem to go to work.
One job was keeping books for tobacco auctions. Another was with an accounting firm. In the meantime, in 1949, he married his Pitt County sweetheart, the former Louise Venters of Ayden.
Because of a rules change regarding draft deferments, Buck transferred to East Carolina where he joined the Air Force ROTC and completed work on a business education degree in the fall of 1954. "It took seven years to get that degree," he recalls. "It was almost by accident that I transferred to East Carolina, but I came home."
Then he began a three-year hitch in the Air Force, serving as a management analysis officer for the Strategic Air Command(SAC) at Seymour-Johnson AFB at Goldsboro. And for 22 years, he maintained his status as an Air Force reservist, using vacation leave for two-week active duty tours, and was retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Joins East Carolina
In 1957, Buck began his professional career at East Carolina as campus housing officer, succeeding a former classmate and close friend, the late Worth Baker. And for a year and a half, he worked in accounting with another close friend, Alex White.
"With Alex White, I learned a great deal about the state budget and budgetary functions," he says. "It hasn't changed." While working as housing officer and accounting, he worked toward a graduate degree and in 1961 received the master's in school administration.
In 1963, Buck again succeeded Worth Baker, this time as personnel officer. Baker became Registrar. In personnel, Buck had responsibility for payroll and worked with two capable assistants, Virginia Green and Helen Perkins, both retired.
And he remembers using an old mechanical Burroughs calculator which, he says, "was used when I got it." It did the job for 700 employees, including at the time cafeteria and laundry workers. "We hired cooks, bakers, dishwashers and dieticians," he recalls." And we had responsibility for workmen's compensation cases, which involved the health and safety of employees." How Times Have Changed
Buck remembers well the growing pains during East Carolina's growth years. With Personnel now located in what was once the president's home on Fifth Street, he recalls sharing office space in Wright Auditorium with then president John D. Messick.
"We were expected to wear a coat and tie, and there was no air conditioning," he says. "Dr. Messick was a grand gentleman." And Leo Jenkins, Messick's sucessor, was a gentleman "who could generalize ideas." Trapped Rabbits As a Boy
Changes also have come to the rural countryside where Buck grew up when there were only two paved highways in Pitt County. As a boy, he tended 40 to 50 rabbit traps for pocket money.
"Usually I would have four or five rabbits every morning which Mr. Sam White, a Greenville merchant, would buy for fifty cent apiece, dressed. I caught hundreds of rabbits and Mr. White would buy all I could bring in with one foot remaining-to assure the buyer that it was a rabbit. Once I caught a weasel in the traps."
Perhaps the biggest change has been in education. Few male graduates of old Chicod High School ever thought about going to college, Buck says."I was told that I was the first male from our community to graduate from college."
