40 Years with the Forest Service

Although I actually hit the 40-year mark on March 9, 2011, the ceremony to award length-of-service certificates was held on December 15, 2011. The ceremony acknowledges the employees of the Albuquerque Service Center; I work for the Human Resources Management group. In addition to a pin and certificate, ASC awards Nambé giftware to employees. The 5-year piece is a small bowl and the pieces get larger with longer length of service. My 40-year tray is the 2nd largest piece that Nambé sells. Nambé is an eight-metal alloy whose major component is aluminum. It was developed in 1953 by Martin Eden, a former metallurgist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Nambé Mills, Inc., was founded in 1951 near Nambé Pueblo, about 10 miles north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The alloy has the luster of silver and the solidity of iron but does not contain silver, lead, or pewter. There are five ASC employees who hit the 40-year mark this year, but I was the only one at the ceremony. As I told many people, it seems like just yesterday that I started work at the Olympia Forestry Sciences Laboratory. I figured it would be a good place to work for a few years. It was 38 years before I left the Olympia Lab to work in Albuquerque. There aren't a lot of 40-year federal government employees who have spent their entire career with the same agency and most of it at the same location. Emily told people that I started as a baby at the Lab--my Mom pushing me around in a stroller doing some filing. It's been a great 40 years and the ceremony made for a very special day.