Steve Shantz is celebrating  both his 67th birthday and his retirement. Shantz, the facilities systems supervisor, will conclude his final day working at Goshen College on Friday after more than 20 years of service. 

Shantz was recruited and hired to work at GC by Glenn Gilbert, former director of facilities, in 2006. Since then, Shantz has worked on a large variety of projects, the most notable being energy conservation through building automation. Shantz said that, despite increased energy demands, campus consumption has decreased by 52% in the last 20 years. 

Gilbert explained that much of this decrease came from the implementation of variable frequency drives, a concept Shantz was ahead of his time in. 

Shantz said that he only needed three lines of code to make motors run as slow as possible to meet their demands. 

“I worked it out on the supply fans in the science building, and then I thought, ‘I can do this with the exhaust fans,’ and then I thought, ‘There’s two air handlers in the music center, and there’s four air handlers in the church, and there’s three air handlers in the library,’” Shantz said. 

“It took a long time to figure out how to do it, but once I had these lines of code, it’s like, ‘Rubber stamp, rubber stamp, rubber stamp!’”

Shantz explained why this is so effective. “Power is proportional to the cube of motor speed, so if I can run it at one-half speed, it uses one-eighth the power — that’s where the magic happens.”

When Shantz isn’t building projects on campus, he’s building jovial relationships with his fellow faculty and GC students. 

Justin Ramer, facilities office manager, spoke to both Shantz’s skills and good-natured attitude. Ramer shared Shantz’s favorite quote for a rainy day: “It’s a good day for a duck.”

Caoimhe Farrell, a junior communication major from Ireland, told her story of getting to know Shantz. “Me and my friends were leaving the dining hall one day and … we decided to play ‘chicken’ with a golf cart that was coming our way.” 

Shantz was the cart’s driver and shouted at them in what Farrell’s friends believed to be an Irish accent. Farrell continued, “I said, ‘Are you Irish? Are you Irish?’ and he said ‘No, I’m Canadian.’” Ever since this incident, Shantz and Farrell have continued to bond over shared sarcastic quips toward each other.

Kate Roth, a senior music education major, got to know Shantz at Assembly Mennonite Church. Roth echoed the appreciation of both Shantz’s sarcasm and positive demeanor. “He’s always had something good to say about literally everything.”

Shantz used to take trumpet lessons; he and Gilbert used to be part of a brass quintet. Shantz said, “I’m a dusty, rusty, crusty trumpet player.” However, he continues to play with both Gilbert and Roth at special services at Assembly and in the Maple City Community Orchestra. 

Gilbert said, “He can think through projects logically and, at the same time, he’s more than just a computer geek. He also is perfectly willing to get his hands dirty and get down in the muck when that’s necessary.”

Outside of campus, Shantz continues to keep himself busy. He believes that land should be productive, either for food-growth or habitat — Shantz cultivates both. He has a personal vegetable garden as well as two onion and garlic-production gardens, both of which receive over 4,000 bulb plantations every year. 

Shantz’s age doesn’t prevent him from gardening either. “How do you plant 4,600 garlics without bending over? I built myself a four-wheeled cart with … big bicycle wheels. There’s this platform — 5 1/2 feet long, 2 1/2 feet wide — and I lay on it face down,” he said.

Shantz also built a homemade telescope for night sky and solar eclipse viewings and collects candle scraps to melt and dip into new candles. Shantz gets the children from his church’s Sunday school to engage in both of the previous activities as well as in harvesting his thousands of crops — a task they take to with vitality and complete in around 15 minutes. 

Afterwards, Shantz said, “I have the great garlic challenge with the children. If they put a clove of fresh garlic in a s’more and eat it, they get a dollar — and they are all over it.”

Shantz and his wife are both retiring. Shantz said that they hope to visit their grandchildren in Cleveland more often, go  camping and visit Hawaii. He also wants to volunteer and continue his work on their property, including maintenance and invasive removal.

Shantz is grateful for GC and the impact he has been able to make. He said, “To have a really good place to work where you’re supported … that’s really, really nice.”