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ASHRAE Chapter History Leadership Recall Interview Jacksonville, Florida Chapter (034) Date: June 29, 1997 |
Let's start things off by talking about your
background, including where you were born, where you attended school and where you worked early
in your career.
I was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1958 and lived there through most of my
early life. I went to school at Penn State and received a Bachelor of Architectural Engineering degree
in 1981 with an emphasis on building systems. I was recruited by Reynolds, Smith and Hill in
Jacksonville while in college and began work with them after graduation. I worked there for a little
over thirteen years until 1994. During the course of my years there, I started out as a junior engineer
and progressed with projects of greater complexity and more responsibility until I left there as a
Senior Mechanical Engineer. I then started my own firm, which I have had since August, 1994.
We've done progressively more work in the Jacksonville area as well as the rest of the state.
When did you first join ASHRAE and when did you become actively involved?
I was student member from my sophomore year at Penn State. That was due to Sean Gilman who is a past society president for ASHRAE. He taught several HVAC classes and it was necessary to join in order to
obtain the text book we had a very active student chapter. I let my membership laps during my move
to Jacksonville. It was must lost in the shuffle. I rejoined in approximately 1982. I periodically
attended chapter meetings. I quit going because of attention given to me as a female in what had been
an all male chapter. Finally, I was asked to teach HVAC classes at Florida Community College at
Jacksonville due to the illness of Brady Crawford's wife. I was teaching those classes when I was
asked to join our chapter's membership committee. What year was that? That was probably about
1984 or 1985. I then gravitated to the educational activities committee where I became chair. I
attended my first CRC in Tampa, approximately eight years ago. Ray Patevonne was regional vice-
chair for education activities at that time. I attended my first board meeting to report on my
committee's activities then I inherited the secretary position due to chapter need. I was then elected
secretary the following year. I then proceeded through the offices except that I skipped treasurer and
vice president due to resignations and people leaving the area.
I remember taking over for you as educational activities chair in 1995 when. you became secretary.
I missed my first regional planning meeting as president elect in 1992 because no one told me about
it. It was probably due to the fact that meeting date coincided with the delivery date for the birth of
my daughter, a minor detail. I remember taking my daughter to CRC in West Palm Beach later that
year. She was the youngest person to attend a CRC. She was even given a name badge during my
presidency. The next year, CRC was in Puerto Rico.
Tell me about your regional activities, when they started and what positions you have filled.
I was nominated to the TEGA committee while president elect. I have served as regional vice chair for the last three years. During that time I have also become more included with ASHRAE. I am now a
voting member of technical committee 4.1, load calculations, due in part to Gary Wingfield, who was
the committee chair I am proud of the fact that I was the first female president of our chapter and the
first female regional vice chair for Region XII. As my responsibilities with TC4.1 increased, I
became chair for a symposium at the upcoming winter meeting in San Francisco.That sounds like
a lot of fun. I think that I'll be there too. Just don't forget to review that paper for me. I promised that I would in exchange for this interview. We've now got that promise on tape. I've got you cornered.
You've mentioned Stan Gilman and Gary Wingfield as notable ASHRAE members, are there any others that you would like to discuss? When I was in school at Penn State, there was Howard Kingsbury who wrote most of the ASHRAE handbook chapters on activities. He was one of my teachers who I didn't like very well at first. Now I love him, another significant, influential ASHRAE member that I have known is Reilly Manning. I have had several excellent discussions with him at several CRC's. He is very supportive of young people and women. Billy from Birmingham, Alabama which has a very strong society of women engineer chapter.
Since you mentioned SWE, we should also mention that you are very heavily involved in that
organization.
It's an interesting organization that was started because men wouldn't let women
become involved in NSPE. We did have male members and approximately half of our members are
student, although its primary purpose is to support women in engineering.
What positions have you held with SWE?
Everything from chapter president of a local section to regional member to our family issues committee, regional treasurer, section representative, and several local roles such as treasurer and newsletter editor.
Since you mentioned newsletter editor, we should also mention that you served in that role for our
chapter.
I was editor for three years and then started our regional newsletter judging and awards
competition. The regional award actually started as a CRC action item which was rejected by society
due to foreign language translation problems. Newsletter editor is one of the busiest chapter
committee.
Do you have any words of wisdom on the state of the industry and how you feel about young people
coming into our industry?
The biggest problem is that many schools do not require students to take
drafting. I've seen a lot of engineers struggle in showing a draftsperson how to do something, when
they don't know how to do it themselves. I am very happy to see a student chapter at the University
of Florida. Their activities are well sponsored by Dr. Sherif. The State of Florida is a major user of
air conditioning and it seemed absurd that we didn't have major support at the largest university in
the state until recently. I would also advise students to become foreign exchange students which I did.
It is nice to see how people in foreign countries live and how they do things.
Do you have any closing words of wisdom?
Two significant improvements have already been made.
The lunch time meetings have boosted attendance and Ed Grey has done a great job at
mentoring/orienting new members.
Ed has done a great job. I understand that you have a meeting to get to right now, Thank you very much (Ed.Note: Our archives show Suzanne as Secretary in 1991/1992, Vice President in 1992/1993, and President in 1993/1994.)
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