For some, a stroll from the Textor ball to Carl Sgrecci’s office in the Peggy Ryan Willams Center could be measured in minutes. For Sgrecci, the journey has spanned 46 years.

“I was on campus the morning that silver ball was delivered,” said Sgrecci, who will retire August 31. “It came in on a low-bed tractor trailer shrouded in black plastic. Nobody knew what it was.”

Since that morning in 1967, the ball has become the gathering point for protests, rallies, and vigils. Students rank it among their top-six study spots. That silver sculpture has become central to campus life.

So has Sgrecci. In 1969, two years after transferring from Corning Community College, he earned his accounting degree from IC and joined the business faculty. In 1975, he was appointed the college’s comptroller, his first administrative post. He retired as the chief financial officer of the college. Sgrecci’s efforts have been crucial in the construction of Park Hall, the Center for Health Sciences, Athletics and Events Center, and two platinum LEED-certified buildings, one of which houses the business school and the other his current office. Sgrecci’s career, though, hasn’t been limited to bricks and mortar.

“We’ve been fortunate to have a CFO for whom the college is so much more than a balance sheet,” said President Tom Rochon. “Carl has played a key role in nearly every major college planning and policy endeavor of the past three decades.”

Sgrecci grew up on his parents’ dairy farm in Watkins Glen and never forgot his roots. He and Marilyn, his wife of 40 years, live on her family’s former dairy farm just outside Ithaca. “I like working with hammers and nails,” Sgrecci said, adding that he looks forward to having time to preserve the farm buildings so that future generations of his family and the community can appreciate them.

“As you get older, you realize how much time has passed, but I’ve been blessed to be at a job I enjoy 99.9 percent of the time. I have no regrets.”

Gerald Hector succeeded Sgrecci as the vice president of the Division of Finance and Administration on July 1. He has two decades of experience in financial management in both the higher education and private sectors, including time at Johnson C. Smith University in North Carolina, and the United Negro College Fund.