Scott Eberly, left, receives his award.

NORTH MANCHESTER — Scott Eberly is the guy behind the scenes at Manchester University who sets up hundreds of chairs for commencement and steps out the spacing for each row. This summer, he and his crew of students worked tirelessly to move staff and faculty members into nearly 100 different offices.

On Aug. 29, the supervisor of setups got a standing ovation as he came forward to accept the Christopher W. Garber Staff Member of the Year Award.

Scott Eberly

The award recognizes a staff member who exemplifies the Manchester mission, a problem-solver with a positive attitude who encourages other staff members along the way. Nominated by their colleagues, the recipients are respected by co-workers and loyal to the University.

“Scott is a behind-the-scenes kind of guy who prefers to stay that way. But he has the respect of everyone in the room. He takes pride in his work and believes that if you’re going to do a job, you do it well,” said President Dave McFadden, quoting one of the nominations. “He pays attention to the details. And, on his own, Scott identifies the gaps and missing pieces that are needed to complete the event or task.”

Eberly’ s job description is to provide event setup needs, supervise deliveries, manage the storage facilities and supervise students who help him. What it doesn’t describe, McFadden said, are the complexities of those tasks – such as stepping off 18 inches of space between rows and rows of chairs. He sets up for dinners for commencement, homecoming, alumni days, new student orientations, Walk Into My Future, summer camps and dozens of other events throughout the year.

“Through it all, Scott remains gracious, professional and a stellar role model for the students who work with him,” McFadden said.

The late Chris Garber, for whom the award is named, hired Eberly in 2011. This is the fourth year for the award.

Senior Director of Auxiliary Services Alexis Young, the award’s first recipient, said the committee received 29 nominations for 19 staff members.

“There are so many people at MU whose colleagues deem them worthy of this award. Each year the task of a selecting a winner gets more and more challenging,” she said.

Eberly’ s family lives just outside North Manchester and breeds English golden retrievers.