Terrence Stanton’s Family Tree Is Rooted in CMU’s Fields and Gardens

Terrence Stanton was raised on the Carnegie Mellon University campus.

As a child, he often tagged along to work with his father, Frank Stanton, a gardener who’s been a CMU employee for nearly 50 years. During his high school years at Central Catholic, he played football at Gesling Stadium and lifted weights at Skibo Gymnasium.

“I feel like I’ve always been a part of the CMU community,” he said. “My dad first met my mom here. My grandma worked here many years ago. I have aunts and cousins who work here. We have our own little family tree at Carnegie Mellon.”

He spent so much time in Oakland as a kid that he once vowed he’d never work at CMU. Life had other plans — Terrence is in his fourth year as coordinator of events and facilities for the Department of Athletics and Physical Education. “Yeah, here I am now,” he said with a laugh. 

Now, every day is like Take our Children to Work Day for the Stantons.

“It’s beautiful because we get to work together,” Frank Stanton said. “I maintain the facilities and he’s an athletics coordinator, so it works out pretty well.”

Frank’s CMU story began in 1979 when he took a job in the cafeteria at Skibo Hall to earn money to buy a suit for his prom. There he met his future wife, Theresa, who was working as a cashier. Since 1982 he’s worked for Facilities Management Services (FMS) as a custodian, craftsman’s helper, and gardener.

As he moves around campus, Frank greets nearly everyone with a smile or a wave. For years, he regularly passed a woman outside Doherty Hall during her workday break and they exchanged friendly hellos. “I didn’t know her name or who she was,” Frank said. “All I knew was she was one of the friendliest people on campus.”

Those quick daily greetings led to the discovery of a family connection. One day, the woman — Georgene Wittig, an undergraduate program coordinator for the Department of Chemistry — shared surprising news: “Your son is dating my granddaughter, Shannon.” 

Now married, Terrence and Shannon Stanton are expecting their first child, a boy, in November. Will there someday be another branch on the Stanton family tree at CMU?

“Yep,” Terrence said with a grin. “As soon as he’s allowed, my son is gonna be out here with me, setting up equipment, greeting (visiting) teams and everything else.”

Terrence’s career path to CMU took a few turns. He attended the University of Mount Union, where he was a member of the Raiders’ 2015 and 2017 NCAA Division III National Championship football teams and a student intern in the athletic department. After graduating with a degree in sport business in 2018, he had brief stints as an assistant football coach at Ohio Northern University and Seton Hill University, where he earned an MBA in 2021. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he also worked as a landscaper and contractor in Pittsburgh. 

In July 2022, he received a two-year NCAA Ethnic Minorities and Women’s Internship Grant and joined CMU’s Department of Athletics and Physical Education. When the grant ended, the department kept him on as coordinator of events and facilities.

“I took the (internship) position knowing that I had two years to make them feel like, ‘We can't afford to lose this guy,’” he said.

As coordinator of events and facilities, Terrence’s job is part problem-solver, part air-traffic controller. “My supervisor always jokes, ‘When you show up for a game, the first thing you do is make sure there’s no hole in the field,’” he said. 

He is the game-day operations manager for soccer, basketball and softball, and helps with events for CMU’s 14 other NCAA Division III teams. If you’ve gone to a varsity event on campus and never noticed him, that means everything went smoothly. “If you see me, that means something’s gone wrong and I’m out there fixing it,” he said.

Terrence's duties range from coordinating parking for officials and team buses to stocking water and energy drinks for the student-athletes. If a scoreboard fails or a court needs repair, his phone buzzes first. He  supervises the students who work as game-day staff, collaborates with FMS staff on projects big and small, and is the staff liaison for the Black and Latinx Athlete Coalition.

He also handles logistics for large events. Last May, CMU hosted the first three rounds of the NCAA Division III Women’s Tennis Championship, which meant booking 50 hotel rooms for visiting teams. A sudden storm knocked out power at one hotel, forcing him to start over on short notice. “I was on the phone all day calling hotels before I finally found about 30 rooms,” he said.

Even summer offers little downtime. This year, CMU renovated its turf field and tennis courts and upgraded the Gesling Stadium press box and president’s suite. In August, the campus hosted events for the JCC Maccabi Games, involving nearly 2,000 athletes and 1,500 volunteers.

“Once fall hits and all the sports begin, things speed up,” he said. “I’ll have an idea of what's coming each day, but it could all change in the snap of a finger. I take it as a challenge. I love athletics, so it's not a job for me. It's fun.”

Terrence, 28, relishes being able to work with his dad. “I admit I make him do some of the work he does every day, because I’m the one who puts in the work orders,” he said with a grin. “But it makes me think back to when I was a kid, and everything he did to provide for our family.”

Frank, who'll turn 67 in February, plans to retire in 2029, when he’ll mark his 50th anniversary at CMU.

“My father is the hardest-working man I know,” Terrence said. “I learned my work ethic from him.”