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Chancellor Honors Staff for Contributions to Campus' Success
Record six employees hailed for 40 years of service

Ioana Patringenaru | Oct. 18, 2010

Chancellor Marye Anne Fox poses with Charlotte Harrris, left, and Frank Wyatt, who both have served at UCSD for 40 years.

They liked their work. The benefits were good, and the university was supportive. They got along with their co-workers. Whatever the reason, they have stayed on the job here on campus for 10 to 40 years.

In all, 652 UC San Diego employees were recognized Tuesday for more than 11,385 years and more than 3.8 million working hours of combined service during the university’s 43rd annual Service Awards Ceremony.

“It really is a privilege to be here to honor the dedication of 652 UC San Diego staff members,” said Chancellor Marye Anne Fox during the ceremony, which took place at the Price Center West Ballroom.

The day’s celebration was all the more special because the university marks its 50th anniversary this year, Fox said. “We will celebrate the numerous individuals—people like you—who’ve shaped this world-class university,” she said.

This year, 99 staff members were recognized for 25 years of service; 52 for 30 years; 13 for 35 years; and a record six for 40 years. Fox said she is adamant that the university will honor post-employment benefits for hard-working staff. She invited audience members to attend two town halls on the issue Oct. 22 on campus.

“All of you have played an integral role in advancing UC San Diego’s mission and, consequently, its standing,” Fox said.

A crew puts installs research equipment that Frank Wyatt designed.

For Frank Wyatt, a development engineer at UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, that has meant designing and putting into the field sophisticated equipment for monitoring seismic faults—for the past 40 years. His group, which is part of Scripps’ Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, also analyzes data generated by the instruments and monitors faults in Southern California. Wyatt said he had no intention of retiring. “It’s been a good challenge—and it remains that,” he said.

He also is a UCSD alumnus, who started out as an undergraduate here in 1965. Back then, the campus was a lot smaller, he remembered. There was the Revelle campus and a lot of Quonset huts on what used to be Camp Matthews. “You could park your car anywhere you wanted in the trees and do your homework and hope it wouldn’t rain,” Wyatt said.

To continue a family tradition, Wyatt’s oldest daughter graduated last year from UCSD with a master’s in literature. “That was wonderful in every way,” he said. She is now getting her teaching credentials from the University of Oregon.  “She’s very passionate about it and very directed,” said Wyatt.

Frank Wyatt's research equipment once installed in the field (this one at a different location).

Another 40-year award recipient was Charlotte Harris, an administrative specialist at the Geisel Library. She started out as a 19-year-old, waking up at 5 a.m., commuting two hours by bus, each way, from her home in southeast San Diego. “That’s what we did back in those days,” she said.

Harris, who is now retired, said she doesn’t think anyone plans to stay with the same employer for that amount of time. But as time, and economic crises, went on, she decided staying put at UCSD was her best option. Most of all, Harris said she could see a secure retirement for herself at the end of her career.

“It’s a good employer,” she said. “It seems like it was working with us. It gave us that stability, it gave us that opportunity to get educated.”

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