Lynda Clifton grew up just three blocks from the ocean. “Now that was a treat – to get up in the morning, throw your beach towel over your arm and go,” she says.
“It was the best time to grow up,” she said of years spent biking around Rehoboth Beach with her friends and walking across the golf course that is now Country Club Estates to get to school each day, singing Elvis.
She graduated with a class of just 28 students. “It was very much a family,” she said, and each student knew everyone, and knew their families.
“It was really fun,” she said, smiling, saying she and her friends went to dances at the end of Rehoboth Avenue.
A smile is a given with Clifton, who, cheerful and helpful, has worked for the Cape Henlopen School District for 29 years.
She has just retired.
“I like to be helpful to people when they call. I try to treat people the way I want to be treated,” she said.
She reflected on her career with gratitude, and said she can’t wait to spend more time with her family. She got started on her goal of traveling more right away, leaving for Bermuda with her husband Ray immediately after her last work week ended.
Clifton said her years working in the Cape district have been wonderful. She said she has enjoyed her work and her coworkers, and she is grateful for the time it afforded her with her family.
“I was able to do things I wanted to do as a mother, to be there for my kids. I got to do that and work at a job I really loved,” she said. Working for the district kept her in close proximity to sports events and school activities, and she said she felt very much a part of the school community.
Clifton glows when she says how proud she is of her three daughters, who all have master’s degrees. ‘They had a great education and school life at Cape,” she said, saying the district is close to her heart. She said her daughters left Cape with a strong educational foundation and the memories of great experiences.
She said she has seen, as a district employee and a mother, the dedication of school staff. Cape staff members have been kind and respectful to her and her family, she said, and she is proud to have been part of Cape’s education tradition.
Following nine years as a legal secretary in Georgetown, Clifton joined the high school guidance office in 1974. She stopped working and was home for six years with her three daughters, returning to the district in 1982, when she joined the district office. She has been administrative assistant to the district superintendent for 18 years, working alongside five Cape superintendents.
“As an administrative secretary, it’s very different. The superintendents all had completely different styles. It’s been an education,” she said.
It’s also been a great career. “I have just been really, really fortunate to work for wonderful people I really respect. It’s been great, it really has,” she said.
And now … “I’m going to have lots of fun,” said Clifton. She said she’s looking forward to having free time to enjoy with her three grandchildren, to beach time, travel, reading, sewing and knitting.
She says she’ll miss her work, but she’s ready for the freedom to spend more time with family.
