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Photo by REED HUTCHINSON
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Retirement is easier, less stressful when this lady’s on the job
BY WENDY SODERBURG
Today Staff Writer
Hollywood has Eddie Murphy the actor, but UCLA has its own Eddie Murphy — and there are many people on campus who would say she’s the bigger star.
Since becoming director of the UCLA Emeriti/Retirees Relations Center (ERRC) eight years ago, Murphy (named after her dad) has been “a live wire,” said Robert Elliott, professor emeritus of electrical engineering who worked with her on creating an emeriti speakers program. When Murphy came on board, she reenergized the center, which had been under temporary leadership. Now the ERRC, located in Rolfe Hall, “is once more businesslike and much more accomplishing than it was for those two rather dry years,” Elliott said.
Murphy was recently presented with the UCLA Staff Assembly’s highest honor, the Excellence in Service Award, before dozens of friends and colleagues in the Royce Hall West Lobby. In the audience were the wily members of her staff who surprised her with the nomination; her boss, Vice Chancellor for Academic Personnel Donna Vredevoe; and current and past presidents of the emeriti and retiree (staff) associations.
“Eddie is everything you would like to see in a staff member,” Vredevoe said. “She’s efficient and organized, but she’s also very caring. She treats her staff splendidly, and they love her. She’s just about the best person I have worked with at UCLA.”
Murphy is a gentle, calming presence for retired staff and faculty who come to the center with concerns ranging from campus parking permits to attitudes about aging. She arranges educational forums on such heavyweight topics as elder abuse and end-of-life decisions, and speaks at brown bag seminars about the non-monetary aspects of retirement planning. She introduced free notary service and computer instruction and instituted an annual summer picnic for emeriti and retirees.
“It’s quite important for the person in Eddie’s position to understand the responsibility of representing both the emeriti and the retirees of the university,” said Ed Retzler, past president of the Retirees’ Association and former associate dean of continuing education, “and she has absolutely done that.”
The third of five children growing up in tiny Wellsville, Ohio, Murphy learned about benefits administration at Doehler-Jarvis, an automotive die-casting firm in Toledo. Over a 20-year period at Hughes Aircraft Company in El Segundo, she served as a retirement counselor and rose to become corporate manager of retiree relations for more than 25,000 retirees. She came to UCLA in 1998.
Murphy is achieving her dream of giving back to her hometown of Wellsville by converting an 1841 farmhouse she bought there into a museum or something that would benefit the townspeople. She’d like to work with the school district to arrange for interested children to serve as docents. The fact that the homestead was recently listed on the National Register of Historic Places “will bring prominence to my small town,” she said.
But here at UCLA, she’s already being celebrated. “I don’t know what I would have done without Eddie,” said Bob Blattner, professor emeritus of mathematics and former president of the Emeriti Association. “She’s one heck of a great person.”
For more winners of Staff Assembly scholarships and awards, go to www.today.ucla.edu. Click on “Briefs,” then “Briefs Online.”
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