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Profile: Jon Cripe

Jon Cripe stands in the cafeteria chatting with what looks like a member of the nighttime cleaning crew. The man is a larger fellow with thinning hair and thick-rimmed glasses wearing a baggy, grey t-shirt and navy blue pants. Jon stands across from him wearing a Morningside Campus Security issue jacket and slacks. He wears his hair parted to one side atop a boyish face, reminding me of the actor, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Their conversation comes to a climax as Jon heads for the cafeteria entrance where I stand waiting. “You should have bundled up a little more,” he tells me, keys jangling, as he walks across the lobby of the Student Center to the Campus Security office.

“Jon is a great guy and a great friend.” Tyler Loeslein, Jon’s temporary roommate last year, has gotten to know Jon pretty well as their friendship has built over the last year and a half at Morningside College. “Jon puts others’ needs before his own. He’s stepped up and taken care of me when I really needed it.”

“If he had to watch me for a night, he’d stay up and do it, just to make sure I was safe,” said Loeslein of Cripe. Jon’s passion of helping others led him to a job with Morningside campus security, which he has been working ever since the beginning of his first semester at Morningside in the fall of 2011.

Jon puts the pedal to the floor and takes off on his “rounds” around campus, where security personnel patrol campus, building by building. It’s a chilly first night of November. Jon is dressed for the weather, wearing a stocking cap and thick, North Face winter gloves to go with his maroon, Campus Security pullover jacket. The temperature doesn’t seem to bother him.

“I’m from Minneapolis, Minnesota, but I was born in Lugano, Switzerland, so I’m used to the cold. I think that if it’s going to be cold outside, there might as well be snow. Snow means that I can ski.” Jon goes on about his cross-country skiing career in high school, in which he at one point held the top varsity spot for his school.

Jon was born in Switzerland, and his family moved to the state of Maine shortly after. Not staying in Maine for very long, the Cripe family eventually settled down in Minnesota, where Jon attended grade school. Jon embraces his Swiss roots, however shallow they may be.

“My parents were teachers in the only American school in Switzerland, at like a private school,” says Jon. “Now they teach at Minnehaha Academy in Minneapolis, where I went to high school.”

Jon talks about his interest in his major, which is psychology, but has always had another career in mind. “I wanted to major in criminal justice, but they don’t offer that here at Morningside. I’ve thought about getting into counseling and stuff, but I really want a career in something like executive protection. Like as a member of the secret service or something.”

A job with campus security is pretty routine: drive around campus touching a wand-like device with a sensor on the end to over one hundred small, circular sensors placed all around campus. The other requirements of the job are to answer any calls via walkie-talkie and lock up all the buildings on campus. Mid-way through locking up the HPER center, Jon gets a call from a woman who lives across from the library on Morningside Avenue and saw kids running and screaming across the campus mall. “Probably just a late Halloween prank. People call security, but people are normally gone by the time we show up,” says Jon with an annoyance in his voice.

Don’t let that fool you. The consensus among his friends is that Jon Cripe is a pretty swell guy. “He’s cool,” said friend and neighbor, Miguel Beltran, a junior at Morningside. “He’s pretty chill. He doesn’t really complain too much. I really like that about him.”

“He’s sort of the kind of person who has good intentions but things tend to blow up in his face instead,” said Jon’s girlfriend, Catherine “Cat” Ruddy. “He isn’t judgmental in the slightest. He is very accepting and understanding. I mean, I’m crazy, and it doesn’t bother him. No matter how crazy I am –hyper, silly, cranky, emotional for no reason— at the end of the day he’s still there.”

“Jon’s one of my best friends here. He’s really good at being a listener and helping people with their problems,” said sophomore, Taylor Starry. “He always tells it straight up and doesn’t sugar coat things. That’s my favorite quality of Jon’s.”

In addition to fighting crime, Jon can also be called an entrepreneur. “My real job is running Static Entertainment. We’re an arts & entertainment provider with a night club/rave theme with an open bar for people that are old enough to drink,” Cripe explains. “Genesis was our first event and it was a success, everyone had a great time. We’re planning another event that we’re calling ‘Winterfresh.’ That’s going down on December 8th.”

As the night gets longer and the wind from riding on the security golf cart starts to make my face feel “Winterfresh,” Jon drops me off in front of my dorm, Dimmitt Hall. After an exchange of thanks and a friendly handshake, Jon Cripe rides off into the night, his breath a visible cloud in the brisk, November air, no doubt on his way to make a difference and extend a helping hand to whoever may call.

~ by Jordan on .

6 Responses to “Profile: Jon Cripe”

  1. First paragrah- he parts his hair similar to…??

    It seems like you rode along in the security cart- that seems pretty cool.

  2. “A larger fellow with thinning hair and thick-rimmed glasses wearing a baggy, grey t-shirt and navy blue pants. Jon himself wearing a Morningside Campus Security issue jacket and slacks.” I thought this was a little confusing, just because it initially reads that Jon in the large fellow with thinning hair. I’d try to fix that and remove the “himself” from the second sentence. But otherwise I thought this was a really good profile and accurate to Jon from what I know of him.

  3. It could be worth comparing his personality and interest in school to his job in security; maybe into greater detail at how well he does his job and why, citing his personality. You do a nice job of profiling him otherwise. Good ol’ Jon…

  4. I trailed off while I was writing that part I guess lol. All fixed now, thanks!

  5. We talked in class about using a frame to help you decide what goes in and what gets cut. I would use “security guy” as your frame. If that’s central to his character — and how he sees himself — explore that. The other stuff about what a great guy he is is nice, but doesn’t reveal much.

    Start with security rounds, and end with it. Weave that with his hopes and desires and his image of himself.

  6. Just saw this updated with pictures- WOW! That’s who this is! I always thought he was gay. Who’da thunk.