DISTINGUISHED EMPLOYEE AWARD Co-workers express admiration for Burge

DISTINGUISHED EMPLOYEE AWARD :
Co-workers express admiration for Burgess
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BY JENNIFER EVANS
Rice News Staff

Pat Burgess, coordinator for the Journal of Southern History, earned Rice’s Distinguished Employee Award in July, but she earned the admiration of her entire department long before that.

”Pat Burgess is a special Rice employee: enormously competent, incredibly committed to her job, willing to do whatever it takes to ensure that things are done right and on time, and unfailingly pleasant,” John Boles, the managing editor of the Journal, wrote. ”She exemplifies the term ‘distinguished employee.”’

Lynda Crist, editor of The Papers of Jefferson Davis, agreed: ”Pat is super-dependable and cheerful always, no matter what is swirling around her desk. She’s in the midst of everything at the Journal and manages to do her own work while answering nonstop telephone calls, from the routine to the frantic, from around the nation and the world, with equanimity and grace.”

The Corpus Christi native has worked at Rice since 1988, keeping the workings of the office greased and tending to the details that yield a quarterly journal containing some 15 articles and 275 book reviews annually. Her duties include keeping up with the massive amount of submissions; corresponding with authors, book reviewers, presses and advertisers; and responding to queries about submissions, advertisements, reprints and more.

”Pat takes care of all this accurately, promptly and with no need for any direction from me. Without Pat’s expertise, I shudder to try to imagine how we could get along,” said Boles, who also is the William Pettus Hobby Professor of History.

Burgess also is an active member of the campus community, attending sporting events, Shepherd School performances, lectures and events sponsored by the Rice Design Alliance, the Friends of Fondren Library and the Rice Historical Society. She has audited a course almost every semester she has been at Rice, sampling from those offered by various departments across campus. And Burgess is entering her 10th year as an associate at Will Rice College, an activity that she said is energizing and uplifting.
”I find the students amazingly impressive, with a wide range of interests and accomplishments. They are a joy to be around.” Burgess said.

Dale Sawyer, master of Will Rice College and professor of earth science, noted, ”Serving as a university associate is not required of Rice employees, so we are particularly pleased when a staff member takes the time to interact with undergraduates. It is part of what makes Rice great, and Pat is a special member of our community.”

Boles wrote in his nomination letter: ”Many times in the past, when I would see those photographs of distinguished employees that formerly hung on the wall of the human resources office in Allen Center, I said to myself that Pat Burgess ought to be up there.” Crist concurred, ”[She] is not just a distinguished employee, she’s extraordinary!”

The Distinguished Employee Award is given by the human resources department on behalf of the university to recognize employees who perform above and beyond their job descriptions to the benefit of the Rice community. To nominate an employee for the Distinguished Employee Award contact Assistant Human Resources Director Colleen Dutton at (713) 348-4755.