ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 25, 1996 TAG: 9601250003
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: ELISSA MILENKY STAFF WRITER
Now that the spring semester has begun at Virginia Tech, two faculty members are conspicuously missing.
Blacksburg Mayor Robert Hedgepeth and Vice Mayor A.T. Leighton retired from their positions at Virginia Tech as of Dec. 31 after a combined 74 years of service at the university.
Hedgepeth, 65, said he took the buyout plan through the Workforce Transition Act at a time when career services, where he has served as assistant director, was changing.
"It was at a time I considered the end of my career," said Hedgepeth, who began working at Tech as a faculty member in the mechanical engineering department in 1955. He took a break from academia from 1968 to 1970 when he became a project engineer at Blacksburg's Electro-Tec Corp., but returned to Tech in 1970 to work in its cooperative education program.
Hedgepeth said he has several town projects to explore in his retirement, including cataloging town records in his possession and traveling to Richmond during the General Assembly session. He also has outlines for three books, including one on a political model, a second on the anatomy of cooperative education and a third on music appreciation for the layman that covers classical, jazz and rock.
"When we got to rap and new wave [music], I quit," Hedgepeth joked.
Leighton, 66, said he had been planning to retire this year but took advantage of the buyout program last year because it was available. After 36 years in the animal and poultry sciences department at Tech, Leighton said he wanted to pursue business opportunities in the private sector.
Those include helping his son with his Christiansburg business, Mail Boxes Etc., and consulting work. Leighton also wanted to devote more time to a contact lens for chickens, a behavior modification tool that prevents them from fighting, which he helped develop and patent.
"I've got enough to keep me busy," he said.
LENGTH: Short : 43 linesby CNB