Prickett sisters retire after nearly 100 years of combined service to Gallaudet

For more than 35 years, there has been a good chance that anyone walking across the Gallaudet campus would run into a Prickett sister. Darlene Prickett, Operations Coordinator for Technical Services, started her career here in 1989 as a secretary. Her younger twin sisters, Rosalyn Prickett, G-’08, and Rosanne Bangura, G-’08, both arrived soon after. And other than a few brief stints away, all three of them have stuck around, performing an incredible variety of staff roles — and occasionally, confusing folks who can’t tell them apart.

“My sisters and I agree that if anyone we don’t know waves at us, we will always wave and smile back because they’ve probably mistaken us for one of the others,” Darlene says. “I don’t think we look a bit alike, but I’m biased.”

About 10 years ago, when the trio attended a pre-retirement seminar together, Rosanne (aka “Rho”) — Senior Assessment Analyst in the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Certification — discovered a curious fact: They would each be eligible to retire during the same week in March of 2025.

“We decided then and there that the universe was telling us that we should retire at the same time as soon as we became eligible,” says Rosalyn (aka “Roz”), the Clerc Center’s Human Resources Manager. “So, that’s what we’re doing. We’ve been working toward this date, and now we’re here.”

A farewell party at HMB on March 27 was a reminder of how many people and programs the sisters have touched throughout their decades of service to the university. The audience of well wishers took a joke vote to reject their retirement, and celebrated the sisters with flowers, hugs, and three separate cakes with each of their faces printed on them.

There were also plenty of glowing (and sometimes teary) remarks from colleagues, who expressed their gratitude for the Pricketts. “If you have a question about anything happening on GU’s campus, Darlene will expertly find the answer. I feel like she’s a human archive for GU. And she’s full of fun. She’s always able to lift up the spirits of a room,” said Jacquelyn Lally, ’00 & G-’13, of Gallaudet Technology Services.

Director of Institutional Effectiveness and Certification Dr. Caroline Kobek Pezzarossi, G-’07 & PhD-’08, praised Rosanne’s ability to get things done. “Rosanne has a charm whereby she writes or converses with people, truly drawing them in, and getting them on board,” she said. “And her investigative skills are the bomb. The Bomb. If she notices that something doesn’t seem right, or needs more information, she looks into it until she’s satisfied.”

As Clerc Center Chief Administrative Officer Nicole Sutliffe, G-’10, noted about Roz, “They don’t make them like that anymore!” Sutliffe has been impressed by Roz’s unwavering commitment to service and contributions to the community. “She supports others such that it makes their lives easier, and makes their work easier,” she added.

Each sister has blazed her own path at the university, shouldering responsibilities in virtually every area of administration.

Darlene was a scheduler for Gallaudet Interpreting Services for four years before leaving to become a freelance interpreter. She returned in 1999 to work for Public Relations as Visitor Center Coordinator, and then Web and Branding Coordinator. In 2014, she hopped over to Gallaudet Technology Services (GTS), where she has been responsible for all communications. She was also an adjunct instructor for several years for Communication Studies, a Student Conduct Board member for Student Accountability & Restorative Practices (SARP) hearings, and served on several DEI committees and the Laurent Clerc Cultural Fund.

Roz started out in the Visitor Center, arranging tours and itineraries for prospective students, researchers, educators, and members of the general public who were interested in sign language or deaf culture. She went on to develop Gallaudet’s first website as a Public Relations Associate. She became Publications Manager, overseeing Gallaudet Today magazine, several newsletters, video content on GU cable, and more. After serving as acting director of Public Relations for two years, she came to the Clerc Center in 2010. She was the compliance manager for 10 years before becoming the human resources manager, a role that involves hiring new employees, working with supervisors on management strategies, and planning orientations and celebratory events.

Rosanne’s first boss at Gallaudet was Bette Martin, special assistant to the president, who encouraged her to follow her dream of serving in the Peace Corps. After two years in Guinea-Bissau, she returned in 1997, this time to work in the Office of Enrollment Services, where she got involved in marketing and planning special events, and then became the undergraduate and graduate catalog editor. In 2009, she moved over to the Office of Institutional Research. “I became an Excel queen and a first-rate survey responder,” says Rosanne, who later worked as the coordinator of state authorization and then moved into program assessments.

Roz says she enjoyed whenever they had chances to team up, like on the Deaf Way II planning committee and the Annual Report of Achievements. And Roz and Rosanne both pursued master’s degrees in Administration and graduated together in 2008.

But they were most likely to see each other over lunch. For a long time, they organized a group that met in an EMG conference room — and, later, other borrowed spaces — to watch “The Young and the Restless.” “Anyone was welcome to join us,” says Rosanne, who credits these beloved colleagues with positively influencing their sibling bond. “We couldn’t squabble and fight in front of them.”

Darlene says that working on the same campus with her sisters never seemed strange. After all, they were in good company with Dr. Angela McCaskill, PhD ‘04, Dr. Carolyn D. McCaskill, ’77, G-’79, & PhD ’05, and Sharrell McCaskill, as well as Dr. Mary Thumann, G-’06 & PhD ’10, Carlene Thumann-Prezioso, ’80 & G-’84, and Dr. Helen Thumann, G-’91, school director of the School of Language, Education, and Culture.

Perhaps the three CODA (Child of Deaf Adult) sisters were destined to come to Gallaudet given their family background. Their father, Hugh Tarpley Prickett, Jr., worked in deaf education as the Coordinator of the Center on Deafness at McDaniel College (formerly Western Maryland College), and their mother, Barbara Jo Cook, E-’67, is a proud GU alum. Their uncle Bill Prickett and stepmother Jeanne Prickett were also deaf school administrators.

One of Darlene’s favorite memories was when their grandmother and great-aunt, who were both deaf, came to visit Gallaudet for the first time and she arranged for them to meet Dr. I King Jordan. “They were so awestruck they barely said anything. My grandmother looked to my dad to interpret for her. Finally Dr. Jordan told her, ‘You can sign directly to me. I’m deaf too,’” she recalls. “They knew that, obviously, but somehow still couldn’t comprehend that a distinguished leader was really deaf. Dr. Jordan was so kind and it was something they talked about for a long time.”

Over the years, they’ve witnessed plenty of changes on campus, particularly when it comes to the architecture. “I’ve seen the West Office Building come down and the Conference Center go up in its place, Hughes Gym replaced by SLCC, Mary Thornberry Building replaced by the new dorm. I remember when HMB didn’t have an atrium or a 4th floor, and it was ‘C’ shaped instead of square,” Roz says.

“We often boast about how many offices and buildings we’ve worked in,” Rosanne adds. (Here’s the full list: EMG, Fowler Hall, College Hall, Circle of Signers, Chapel Hall, West Office Building, JSAC, HMB, Clerc Center-KDES building, Merrill Learning Center, GUKCH.)

Darlene thinks back to the College Hall renovation, which included uncovering the wooden ceilings and stained glass windows in the third floor Lyceum. “I remember bringing an elderly deaf woman on a tour to see the renovated room. She burst into tears,” she says. “She said that women were not allowed in the Lyceum when she was a student, but her husband had described it to her many times. She was overwhelmed to see it for the first time and to see all of its amazing features.”

There have been a lot of highlights that stand out for the sisters. For Roz, the top moments were going to graduation in 1994 when President Bill Clinton gave the commencement address — and called Gallaudet “a national treasure” — and getting to produce a 30-second Gallaudet ad that ran on the Panasonic Astro Vision screen in Times Square in New York City, every hour on the hour for the entire month of October in 2005. 

Rosanne says her experiences at Gallaudet have taught her how to write, collaborate, and innovate. To promote the Deaf President Now 10th anniversary celebration, she installed the first light pole banner ads on campus. “Every time I see a new banner flying on a light pole, I think, ‘I started that,’” she says. Another proud achievement is that she once managed to get the Department of Education in Massachusetts to return two checks to Gallaudet totaling $77,000.

Coordinating Parents Weekend was a blast for Darlene, who loved meeting all of the families. She also got to give tours to countless prospective students, Girl and Boy Scout troops, and international educational leaders through the U.S. State Department. And there have been so many wonderful people that she has known and worked alongside, she adds.

She won’t forget the tough moments either. “One of the most difficult times was the tragic murders of Eric Plunkett and Ben Varner in 2000 and 2001,” Darlene says. “We grieved the loss of these two promising young men, the loss of innocence, and the palpable fear in the days before the murderer was found. We also managed a hoard of reporters and news crews who wanted to talk to students and faculty but never brought interpreters. We provided interpreters to ensure the accuracy of the interview without trying to influence what they said.”

Along the way, they have formed meaningful bonds with colleagues past and present. “Darlene will be deeply missed by the Gallaudet Technology Services team — we are her other family and always will be,” says Bernadine Bertrand, GTS Director of Operations. Although all three Pricketts say it is tough to say goodbye, they know that the university is in good hands. “Our office has hired a great team of enthusiastic and knowledgeable staff that I have full confidence will continue to grow, innovate, and support Gallaudet in the future,” Rosanne says.

But Roz notes there’s one thing she’s happy to give up: her Route 50/New York Ave./West Virginia Ave. commute. Instead, she plans to devote her time to learning more about genealogy. Rosanne will work part-time at Whole Foods as an e-commerce shopper, and take trips with family and friends. Darlene also wants to travel, but she has another key goal for retirement: “I have no immediate plans except to sleep in.”

It has been a remarkable journey for all three women, whose lives will forever be intertwined with the university they love. “Working at Gallaudet was my first job when I got out of college. I’d intended it to just be temporary, but then I stayed,” Roz says. “It was like a home to me, more than just a workplace. Over the years, there have been so many wonderful opportunities to be creative, to be a leader, to influence change, and to work with so many equally enthusiastic and capable people.”