ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 28, 1996 TAG: 9601310103
SECTION: NEW RIVER ECONOMY PAGE: 14 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
They call her "Turbo Granny" at the Montgomery County Jail: Jean Trump always seems to be on the go.
Not just at the jail, where she's worked for one year, but throughout her careers.
Yes, careers.
Like many workers in the New River Valley, Trump, 55, has had to adjust to changing work climates.
While years ago it wasn't uncommon to spend one's whole career with one company, today's workers will usually work for more than one. Along the way, they face buyouts, early retirement and job retraining - often late in their career life.
Trump tackles each new challenge with a positive attitude and a sense of humor, not even letting a potentially job-ending disability or rigorous physical training requirements stand in her way.
Trump gained attention last year when she was named "Most Outstanding Graduate" of a basic jail school at Cardinal Criminal Justice Academy in Roanoke.
She was heralded not only for her achievements at the school, but also for taking on the challenges of a second career as a jailer.
"Actually, this is really a third thing for me," Trump says.
After accepting a buyout offer from the Radford Army Ammunition Plant, she went back to school for training as a medical assistant at National Business College in Roanoke. She finished a two-year program in 17 months. That led to an internship and a part-time job at a doctor's office, but she wanted full-time work.
While putting in applications one day, she stopped by the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office.
She was surprised when she got a job.
"It really amazed me that the sheriff would hire someone at my age," she says.
Trump started her job Feb. 1, 1995. Her duties include overseeing inmate recreation programs, transporting inmates to court and the hospital, and working with trusties.
Her co-workers have made her feel welcome, she says, as have the inmates.
"They have a real positive attitude. I think maybe it's the mother image. The call me Ms. Jean or Turbo Granny ... They say it's because I'm always rushing around doing something."
Trump says it's important to put aside feelings about the crimes they're accused of and show compassion.
"I think that you need to treat them with as much respect as possible, and they'll return it. ... You try not to think about what they've done, because they're human and they've got family. They've got feelings, and they're paying for their crimes."
With several months under her belt at the jail, Trump headed off for jail school in September, a seven-week program.
"Jail school was like boot camp," Trump recalls. "I came dragging home every day for the first few weeks."
The next oldest person in the class was 23 years her junior.
The school wasn't just about classroom instruction. It also required physical agility demonstrations.
Class members had to run 11/2 to 3 miles a day. Three times a week, they did 85 push-ups, 65 sit-ups, 50 bar-dips and 50 pull-ups.
"It was rigorous training. ... I thought [the director] hated me."
Later, the director - who named her Most Outstanding Graduate - told Trump, "I didn't hate you; I just wasn't going to cut you any slack."
Trump is glad she met the challenge and says the physical training put her in great shape.
"Personally, I never thought I was outstanding in anything," she said.
Trump is grateful that the arsenal's buyout in 1993 also included money for job retraining.
"I feel really blessed. The arsenal gave me an opportunity. The arsenal was great to me. I had no ill feelings. We were just in a situation.
"The industry was going down over there, so I took the buyout ... and went back to school to get my medical [training]."
Wolverine Manufacturing and Gasket Company went through a similar problem when the auto industry suffered. Trump worked there for three years, becoming its first female supervisor before moving to the arsenal.
Trump spent 13 years at the arsenal, starting work in August 1981. A few months later, she was in an on-the-job accident.
A buggy loaded with at least 1,000 pounds of propellant fell off a ramp and "knocked me off and caught me under it," Trump recalled.
There was a question whether she'd ever walk again. She was hospitalized for 36 days and in a cast for eight months. But she returned to work for the powder plant, even though she wore a brace for eight years, and became a supervisor.
The jail job has helped her realize a lifelong interest in criminal justice, but she "never really dreamed in my wildest dreams that I'd ever become a deputy."
She plans to continue working at the jail until she reaches retirement age, if possible.
But at her jail school graduation, she teased then-Sheriff Ken Phipps and the school's director that she could decide to try something else.
"I never have been an airplane pilot. I may try that out next," she told them.
"I don't know what I want to be when I grow up."
LENGTH: Long : 105 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: "Turbo Granny" - aka Jean Trump - is nothing if notby CNBflexible. After two job buyouts and a near-death experience at one
plant, she went to jail school "boot camp" for rigorous training
with kids half her age. color GENE DALTON/STAFF