Through the lens of Veronica Adrover we have seen buildings rise, graduates cheer and lasers glow. We’ve seen governors, a First Lady and a former U.S. president. We’ve glimpsed a young bobcat in tall grass and celebrated young Bobcats in labs, corridors and classrooms.
Through 20 years at UC Merced, Adrover and her camera documented the emergence of a 21st century research university and the people who work, learn and teach there. She is among the most recognized folks on campus, due in part to the Canon EOS at her side but more for the impression she makes on the people whose lives she touches.
Veronica was one of the first staff members I met at UC Merced,” public health Professor Sidra Goldman-Mellor said. “Her warmth, gentle humor and consummate professionalism immediately stood out.”
Adrover is retiring from UC Merced in May, dropping the curtain on a career that began in February 2005 when she became an administrative assistant for the university’s communications team. It was a time when the San Joaquin Valley campus existed more on blueprints than in concrete and steel. Cranes and bulldozers dominated a site six months from hosting its first undergraduate classes.
“Veronica never hesitated to put on a hardhat and boots and walk into a construction zone,” said Patti Waid, the communications director at the time. “She came to work every day with a can-do attitude.”
In 2009, Adrover was among a crew of photographers who captured one of the most remarkable events in UC history: First Lady Michelle Obama’s appearance on campus to give the keynote address for the university’s first four-year graduating class. Thousands packed the commencement grounds, contending with tight security and triple-digit weather.
“She met with the students who arranged the campaign to get her out here and gave them all hugs,” Adrover said. “In the midst of that crazy chaos and hot day she looked so elegant and was as cool as a cucumber.”
Adrover formed a friendship with television anchor Lester Holt, who came to UC Merced ahead of Obama’s appearance to do a piece for NBC and returned to the San Joaquin Valley in 2010 as the spring commencement speaker.
“By the second year, we were buddies,” Adrover said. “Every night when I watched him on the news, it would be like, ‘Hey, Lester.’”
Over the years, Adrover and her camera were on hand for campus visits by former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, author and environmentalist Winona LaDuke, and California governors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gavin Newsom.
The campus visit that made the biggest impression on Adrover was that of former President Jimmy Carter, who came in 2010 to accept the Spendlove Prize and speak to the National Park Institute. At a small get-together before the Spendlove ceremony, the nation’s 39th president gave the campus photographer a hug.
“That was pretty special,” Adrover said. “A genuine, heartfelt, compassionate person.”
