WORCESTER—Starting with 1995 the Unites States of America has had five presidents, the Roman Catholic Church has had four popes and the DCU Center has had one general manager.
That would be Sandy Dunn, who has never heard “Hail to the Chief” played for her nor been declared infallible. She has, however, had a remarkably long career in an industry where bosses can have the shelf lives of egg nog.
Dunn is retiring soon. How soon? That is a different issue.
“I was was asked to be flexible,” she said during an interview in her corner office at the DCU Center, “and I am flexible, unfortunately. I would like to have a condo in Florida rented for three months.”
Her replacement has not been hired yet. Her best guess is that will happen relatively early in 2026.
Dunn is not being forced out. She is not burnt out. She still gets up in the morning and can’t wait to get to work, but she is 67 and the clock is ticking.
“My husband (Joe) is seven years older than me,” she said. “He’s been retired for seven years and in great health. You get to a point where you want your health to be great in retirement, too, and be able to enjoy life together.”
The list of prominent public figures Dunn has met is a long one, naturally, considering what she has done for work through the decades. Her first brush with celebrity came early in life, though.
She grew up in Punxatawney, Penn. Yes, that one, as if there are any others. Dunn was an aquaintance of Punxatawney Phil, the world’s most famous amateur metereorologist. Acquaintance, yes. Close friend — not quite.
“I’ve seen him many times,” she said of his forecasting skills. “He’s awful, just awful. He must go to the party the night before and have a hangover the next day.”
Dunn has spent most of her life in places that are hard to spell.
After high school she attended and graduated from Allegheny College, also in Pennsylvania, where she studied set design. Summers were spent working at the Chautauqua Instititution in western New York and she spent most of her working life here in a city frequently mispelled and misprounouced.
After graduation Dunn convinced her bosses at Chautauqua to hire her full-time as production manager. It was a good job at a highly regarded venue. Even so, at age 25 Dunn left there to become a receptionist at what was then the Centrum, run by Spectacor Management Group (SMG).
“When I came here,” she said, “it was a pretty big step back to become a receptionist, but I had identified that this was gonna be my career when I was at Chautauqua. I came here and took the receptionist job because this was the darling of the industry and getting your foot in the door is half the battle.
“So I took the job with the vision that I would continue my career in the industry, but I never thought I would be the general manager.”
Dunn kept getting promoted and in 1990 was hired as the general manager for SMG’s facility in Niagara Falls, N.Y. It was once known as the honeymoon capital of North America but had more recently come to be known as the home of Love Canal.
“I call it doing time for the company,” she said.
While not watching people go over the falls in a barrel, usually unsuccessfully, Dunn was able to learn the convention center side of the business. It was a very valuable lesson and she returned to Worcester in 1995 just when the Centrum was breaking ground on its convention center.
It was the perfect marriage of skill and experience. Dunn never left the city or building again and replaced John Wentzell as general manager of the Centrum in 1995.
Many famous people have appeared at the DCU Center. Dunn has not interacted with all of them, but has never considered that to be part of her job description.
“I’ve never been a performer chaser, an artist chaser,” she said. “This is their work space, their home for the day, so I tried to stay pretty far away unless someone pushed me into it.”
She has met two Presidents of the United States, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama here, and met Hilary Clinton before that. Dunn is proud that her arena was the first to play host to U2 in the United States and is very happy with her relationship with one of the city’s most well-known residents.
“I’m very proud of meeting and knowing Bob Cousy over the years,” she said. “That’s true fame, not just fleeting fame.”
Dunn’s most memorable DCU Center event was on Dec. 9, 1999.
“It is double edged,” she said. “It is the Worcester 6 firefighters memorial. Number One it was the memorial itself, the loss of lives. Then it was the turnaround, the outpouring of the community. We wound up in the exhibit hall, our vendors just poured in the food, all the firefighters who were in the city were fed and the beer ran like crazy.
“The President (Clinton) and Vice-President (Al Gore) were here. It was like a Super Bowl. Nothing could have topped that.”
Having been part of Groundhog Day, having seen Niagara Falls, having driven through Kelley Square and survived— what could top that Bucket List now that retirement looms?
“I don’t know that if, after being home alone all day for seven years I don’t know if (Joe Dunn) is going to be thrilled with me being home with him,” she said.
Joe Dunn does not like to travel but their sons, Peter and Charlie do. Sandy Dunn has traveled with them to Macchu Piccu, the Galapagos Islands and taken an African safari. Plus, there are grandchildren to enjoy.
“We have two,” she said, “and hope for more.”
What she will most is not the building as much as its inhabitants.
“The staff, the people, it is family here,” she said. “We are here long hours, sometimes seven days a week and holidays if there’s a booking. I’ll miss coming in and seeing my second family every day.”
What does she see for the future of the DCU Center?
“I think that we’ve stabilized the building, the arena,” she said. “I have concerns that minor league will go away. I think the Convention Center could use an expansion and I think if minor league goes away I could see Convention Center type events use the arena more.”
Dunn would like to expand the Convention Center so it has a Main Street presence and there has been a design in place to do that for 15 years.
“I think the future of the building is the Convention Center,” she said.
Dunn has seen the groundhog, the Peruvian Andes and some giant tortoises. She has met two presidents and knows the Houdini of the Hardwood. What sort of retirement adventure could top any of that?
Kelley Square isn’t going anywhere soon and that never gets old.
Bill Ballou covered the Red Sox for the Worcester Telegram from 1997 through 2018. He has covered pro hockey in Worcester since 1994 and currently does a weekly column for the Worcester Red Sox. Ballou can be reached at vetgoalie@aol.com
