I entered a white room dressed in all black. There stood Abel Ndingwan, clad in white, with a paint roller in hand. With large, rimmed glasses and a broad smile, Ndingwan radiated good humor that seemed to fill the white walls of Hege-Cox Hall.

“Hello,” said Ndingwan with magnificent force.

Ndingwan had just primed the walls of Hege-Cox and was about to paint them.

“When a wall is punctured, I plaster the hole, paint it and make it look real good,” said Ndingwan. “I use a compound that dries in five minutes. Then I can put my paint right on and it looks like nothing ever happened.”

Ndingwan paints and performs other duties for Guilford College’s department of facilities and he has a reputation for his hard work and a methodical approach.

His family emigrated from Cameroon in 1996 after Ndingwan won a U.S. Diversity Lottery that granted them visas to the United States.

He has lived and worked in Greensboro for the last 14 years.

“Within 14 days after my family and I arrived from Cameroon, I had a green card and a Social Security number,” Ndingwan said. “I started working right away.”

Ndingwan’s first job was with Bob Dunn Jaguar. As a quality control technician, he made sure each car ran smoothly before it went out on the lot. After one year, business was slow and he was laid off.

Ndingwan was then hired by U.S. Label Corporation. There, he operated and inspected machines that made die cut labels for jeans and other textiles.

The company was sold and Ndingwan was again laid off.

Despite these lay-offs, he kept trying. He had four children to care for, so he had to find employment.

In 2000, Ndingwan was hired as a full-time security guard at Guilford College. For the first time, his job had him looking after college students instead of machines. He saw that many of the students at Guilford needed a watchful eye as well.

One time he chased down a few kids who stole a golf cart from the facilities department. Ndingwan grabbed one of the kids who, in response, punched him hard in the arm.

Ndingwan could have pressed assault charges. Instead, he had a long talk with the young man and made him promise never to hit another person in uniform again.

During another incident, Ndingwan responded to noise from a party at Pope House. When he arrived, there were students on the roof taking shots of liquor. They asked him if he wanted a drink.

“Yes, I would like a drink, but please come down so we can make a toast,” said Ndingwan.

“I didn’t drink the alcohol of course, but the kids came down off of the roof,” Ndingwan said. “If I had run up yelling, they may have panicked and fallen off the roof. I was thinking quickly.”

Ndingwan cares deeply about Guilford students, but he is also concerned that they are not getting a taste of the real world.

“In the real world, there is no security officer to come and end the party,” Ndingwan said.

“You must program yourself to call it a night, because you have to work in the morning. I used to tell the students, ‘If you sit back and people are feeding you like a bird in the cage, then you are not truly living.'”

Today, Ndingwan paints Guilford’s walls with the same care and exactness he demonstrated with students 10 years ago. For him, the school has seen change, but the people have always been friendly.

“Most places in the U.S., people are too busy to wave or even smile,” Ndingwan said. “You don’t have to say hi. If you just smile, it’s already hi. Students here are busy, but they still find the time to smile. It makes me feel like I am in Cameroon again.”

Ndingwan plans to retire in two years. The walls he painted will be painted over again and again, but his hard work and discipline will not be quickly forgotten.