Gwen Oldenburg retires from Tick Klock today

Gwen Oldenburg behind the counter at the Tick Klock pharmacy. The long-time pharmacist is set for retirement today.

A familiar face at Tick Klock Drug is heading for retirement today. Gwen Oldenburg, long-time pharmacist at the store, will have her last day at work today, Sept. 24. She has been at Tick Klock for nearly five decades.

“We’re thinking 48 years,” she said. “None of us could really determine for sure.”

A retirement celebration will be hosted in her honor throughout the day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Tick Klock. Cake and punch will be served.

Oldenburg was hired at the store not long after it was purchased in 1966 by Lloyd and Joyce Johnson. Oldenburg started out working part-time.

Over the years, she eventually evolved into working more. She said the store evolved over time, too.

“They used to dance up there,” she said, pointing to the third floor. “I don’t think it would hold up dancing anymore.”

Since Mark and Robyn Johnson bought the store in 1987 from Mark’s parents, 7,500 square feet have been added to the store.

“The pharmacy was a small pharmacy before Mark remodeled,” Oldenburg said. “In those days, pharmacies usually only had one pharmacist, usually a man. Now we have seven to ten working at one time.”

Oldenburg said one of the biggest changes at the pharmacy, aside from the remodel, was switching to computers.

“Lloyd and I were here when we had to get trained on computers,” she said. “Before the computer, everything was done by hand. We ended up needing a computer with how many prescriptions we were filling.”

Oldenburg credited changes in medical care and doctors seeing more patients to the rise in prescriptions that have necessitated computers and larger staffs.

Oldenburg said her career as a pharmacist has been great.

Originally from the Gig Harbor area, she attended Peninsula High School and graduated from there in 1959. She moved to Pullman to study at Washington State University, where she graduated in pharmacy in 1964. While in college, she was a member of Gamma Phi Beta. She and Charlie Oldenburg were married July 20, 1963.

She said she decided to study pharmacy because her dad thought it would be a good fit for her and even her siblings.

“He worked in a drug store,” Oldenburg said. “My dad ran the front of the store. He thought that would be a good job for me.”

During her career, she worked at 12 different drug stores. At one point, she was working at two in Pullman in addition to her job at Tick Klock. She said her position at Tick Klock was a perfect fit for her through the years as she raised their three children.

When her children were younger, it afforded her the flexibility she needed to be home with her children and as the grew older she was able to take on more hours.

Daughter Rene’ married Jeff Scourey and lives in Pullman. Their two children are Michael and Jake.

Son David lives in St. Louis and has a 10-year-old son, Jackson.

Son Mark was born in 1972 and died in 1984 when he was struck by a car while on a riding lawnmower.

Oldenburg said it was her faith that helped her and her family in that tragedy.

“I have a strong faith in Jesus Christ,” she said. “We really leaned on the Lord.”

She believes the hardest part of retirement will be leaving “all the wonderful people” she has met over the years.

“We just have such nice customers. It is always so nice to see them. That is the part I will miss.”

She has known three generations of some of the families.

“This is an area where people stay,” she said.

When Oldenburg began working at Tick Klock, she said there were three other drug stores in town. Now, Tick Klock is the only one that is left. The other stores were Grady Drug, Elk Drug and Hamilton Drug.

“Gradually, the doctors left and the pharmacies closed up,” she said. “The Johnsons have outlasted everybody.”

Oldenburg also said each of the towns around Whitman County used to have a drug store and a doctor, and now most of the residents of smaller communities come to Colfax.

Oldenburg said “there will be no shortage of things to do” as she enters retirement.

“You can be seemingly busier when you are retired,” she said. “We are involved in a lot of things.”

She said she and husband Charlie, who retired in 1999 as greenhouse superintendent for the WSU horticulture department after a career of 37 years,

will soon embark on a trip to Barcelona where they will also go on a cruise. Friends invited them on that trip. Once they return from that, she has a reunion with her 1959 class. She said her class has a reunion retreat every two years. She also has a reunion once a year with the Gamma Phi Beta girls.

She is looking forward to spending more time dancing with Charlie.

“It’s fun, it’s something we like to do together,” she said.

They are members of the Moose Lodge in Clarkston and enjoy country western style dancing. She said they do the jitterbug and the Lindy hop.

“We like to go dancing, and we have friends that do, too,” she said.

The Oldenburgs are also members of a dance club that meets six times per year. In addition to that, they are involved in “lunch bunch,” a group that goes out to lunch once a month in Pullman or Moscow.

They also hope to spend more time riding their three horses.

Oldenburg has been cutting back at the pharmacy in recent months and felt it was time for retirement.

“This just seemed like a good time to call it quits,” she said. “It has been really rewarding. I do treasure all the friendships I have made. I have enjoyed the profession, but it is the people who really make it. I just feel so lucky.”