Sandra Collins, a senior laboratory technician in the laboratory of Gene Lyons, PhD, will retire from the University of Kentucky’s (UK) Department of Veterinary Science on Jan. 3 after more than 40 years with the lab.

Collins began working in the classical parasitology laboratory with Lyons and former department chair and faculty member Harold Drudge, DVM, ScD, on June 29, 1970, in the Dimock Animal Pathology building. She recalls wearing a skirt, stockings, and flats on the first day but soon realized, after rounding up horses at the farm, that jeans and boots were more appropriate work clothes.

“She has been a key person with us,” Lyons said. “She’s filled in all the gaps over the years. She will be greatly missed.”

A Lexington, Ky., native who graduated from Henry Clay High School before a brief stint as a student at UK, Collins said when she began working at the university she never planned to stay. She had previously worked at Purcell’s Department Store in inventory control and left for a slight pay raise