Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 2, 1993 TAG: 9304020428
SECTION: FOUNDERS DAY PAGE: FD-8 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
PORTERFIELD REWARDED WITH AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE
During the past 38 years, five different deans have served Virginia Tech's College of Engineering. Yet, all five has been attended to by the same secretary, Peggy A. Porterfield.Every working morning for almost four decades, Porterfield has bustled into the dean's suite, ready to tackle another day's work as if it was her first day on the job.
As the dean's secretary, she involved herself in every aspect of the engineering college. No task was left to someone else.
If students needed keys made to their offices, Porterfield pushed all the right paperwork. If a faculty member requested to use the dean's conference room and it was unavailable, she would call other offices until she located an alternate place for the meeting.
Many a day, Porterfield, always resilient with energy, would carry 300 pieces of mail to the engineering departments to ensure immediate delivery of an important document.
During these years, hardly a day passed in her working career that she left the office before 5:30 or 6 p.m. And, when she did leave the office, she was often on her way to perform volunteer work for her church.
In July, Porterfield will retire from the university as one of the five recipients of the President's Award for Excellence for 1993.
Wayne Clough, the dean of engineering and the person who nominated Porterfield for the award, described her continuous service in a high pressure job as "remarkable." But, he pointed out, his nomination was more for the way in which she accomplished her job.
"Dedication, determination, reliability, willingness to learn, patience and ability to work courteously with a wide variety of people are factors that single out Peggy's mark on the job," Clough wrote.
Porterfield's former boss, Paul E. Torgersen, now a member of the industrial and systems engineering faculty and president of Virginia Tech's Corporate Research Center, added his compliments to the nomination.
In a letter of recommendation, he reported, "I can think of no single person more deserving of the award against the criterion of `consistent excellence in performance of job duties and responsibilities . . . over an extended period of time.' "
F. W. Stephenson, who served as interim dean of the College of Engineering in 1988, described Porterfield's extensive knowledge and "corporate memory" as important factors that enabled him to discharge his responsibilities.
"I particularly remember her spending extra hours to master new computer software, and to learn the intricacies of electronic mail. And these tasks were always assumed without protest, and in good spirit," Stephenson, now the head of the Harry Lynde Bradley Department of Electrical Engineering, added in his letter of recommendation.