Your Outstanding Service Award Nomination Letter

Dear Eulie;

I thought I would post the text of the nomination letter for the Outstanding Service Award that you received this week. This letter was composed by the scientists in CWE.


Re: Nomination of Eulalie (Eulie) Markham for Outstanding Service Award

Dear Committee:

It is with great pleasure that we in the Center for Water and Environment at the Natural Resources Research Institute nominate Eulie Markham for a Distinguished Service Award.

Eulie has been a central figure in the Center for Water and the Environment since she began working with us in 1988. As the first face and voice that our guests encounter, Eulie presents a professional and competent attitude with unfailing courtesy that never fails to impress and reassure. But beyond that first impression Eulie also fills many essential roles for our Center and does so with incredible dedication. Former staff and especially students remark that Eulie was as much a sounding board and good listener as she was a competent and efficient staff member. (One former student remarked that she thought that “Eulie ran the place”, having never had contact with CWE Administrators!). Eulie makes new students and staff feels welcome as she efficiently helps them settle in. Her calming influence has played an important role in reassuring many a student in the throes of preparing for their thesis defense and seminar. Many of these students still maintain contact with Eulie - a tribute to her kindness. Staff comment that she cares about (and takes care of) us professionally, but she also cares about our families and our lives outside of work. But Eulie is best known over the years for her ability to multi-task with ease and efficiency.

Let us give you an impression of “a day in her life”: Eulie is at her desk by 7:30 am, if not earlier, each day. In a typical busy day she prepares one or more proposal budgets for the 10 principal investigators (PIs) in the Center, working with Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA) and the PI to sort out the details of budget forms, which differ for each of the dozen or so funding agencies with whom we work. Typical budgets take three to five iterations to ensure that the total is within the agency’s limit, the appropriate match requirements are met and calculated correctly, and the PI follows SPA regulations for allowable expenses. In between these budget revisions, Eulie answers the phone, directs callers to the appropriate person or department (no mean feat, given the breadth of CWE’s scientific and technical reach), catches up on e-card documents, reassures a student that their time sheet was signed and they will indeed be paid on time, schedules a seminar, processes a travel document, answers a PI’s questions about effort, demonstrates a procedure in the new accounting system for a staff member from another department, and on and on... Oh, and we forgot to mention that she arranged parties for staff retiring and leaving for other positions, and arranged for a card and gift for a staff member who lost a parent. That’s just another day or two for Eulie.

Our group is largely funded through external grants, and as a result, we write and submit more proposals per capita than any other department on campus. In the last two months, for example, our group has submitted 1 major grant to the US EPA STAR program (~$500K), 1 to US EPA Region 5 ($~350K), 4 proposals to LCCMR ($500K + ), 1 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (~$226K), 1 to MPCA (~$358K), 2 to Minnesota DNR (~$60K), 3 to Minnesota’s Lake Superior Coastal Program ($46K + ~$100K + $60K), 1 to Minnesota Sea Grant (~$200K), 1 to the Northeast-Midwest Institute (~$65K)... you get the picture. We have never added up the total number of grant proposals Eulie has helped to process, but the total dollar value of those grants over her 20 years of service likely exceeds $50-60M! Members of the SPA team that work with her say “It's wonderful working with Eulie. She always tries to make our job easier - and thanks to her knowledge, skill, attention to detail, and great judgment, she succeeds. She is responsive, patient, and gracious. Plus, her sense of humor stays intact under deadline pressure.” And “From a NRRI Central Administration financial standpoint, Eulie is and has been a very much needed and appreciated resource. Whether it be on proposals, budgets, procurement cards, travel, etc., she has been our go-to person within CWE. For the amount of staff that she prepares documents for, she has a memory like a "steel trap". The scientists in CWE seem to get involved in "unique situations" whereby different avenues need to be explored on how to process, yet stay compliant, documentation. Eulie seems to have a sense about her of recognizing issues that could be problematic and works to get these resolved in the beginning of the task on hand. Her willingness to go the extra mile is always apparent. She is a joy to work with on a daily basis!”

It is no exaggeration to say that our Center’s success is dependent upon the hard work and dedication that Eulie and her colleagues in the office do collectively to ensure that the submitted product is accurate, professionally packaged, and submitted on time. When, despite everyone’s best intentions, the final disposition of a proposal gets “down to the wire”, Eulie’s calm attitude and her refusal to become flustered ensures that the package gets “in the mail”, even if it means staying late. Her supervisor, Lucinda Johnson, has received numerous comments voicing gratitude for Eulie’s dedication in assisting with this difficult and stressful process. In fact, a former researcher who moved to campus continues to ask for assistance from our office staff, especially Eulie, when it comes to submitting grant proposals. Dr. Gerald Niemi, the former Director of the Center for Water and the Environment said “Eulie Markham is one of the most dedicated, dependable, and hard working individuals that I have ever worked with – inside or outside the University. She is a real gem and has been an essential person in helping me effectively and efficiently manage millions of research dollars at NRRI. If she retires, I am breathless on how she can be replaced.”

As we begin to consider what our lives will be like following Eulie’s retirement this coming June (a very scary thought, indeed), we are beginning to mentally draft the job description. The ad might read something like ”Seeking an professional, courteous, dedicated, and highly experienced individual willing to work long hours under stress and still maintain a smile; must be able to multi-task and respond to at least two dozen ‘bosses’ at once; must be a sympathetic and good listener; excellent organizational skills required.” In other words, we need a Mary Poppins with computer and accounting skills who believes as whole-heartedly in our mission (economically and environmentally sustainable resource development) as she does. Eulie will be a very difficult employee to replace, and we will miss her sorely. To that end, we collectively wish to endorse her nomination for a Distinguished Service Award for 2008. We feel there is no more deserving individual than Eulie Markham; further, this would be a fitting reward for her 20+ years of service to NRRI and UMD.

Respectfully submitted,


Center for Water and the Environment Researchers and Staff

Dear Eulie;

Congratulations on your retirement!!! You've been such as huge part of CWE's "family" for so long. It's hard to imagine what it will be like to arrive at the office and not see you at your desk. We have been through ups and downs--- I know that I have come out the other end as a wiser and better human being for having had you as a colleague. I hope you feel the same.

Thank you so much for your long and dedicated service to CWE. I can say without a shred of doubt that had it not been for your dedication, CWE would not gotten out many of the grants we managed to squeek through! Thank you for hanging on through those tense times!

I will miss you sorely, and hope your life in retirement will be full of walks with friends and dogs, golf, and fulfilling time with your grandchildren. I hope you stay in touch.

Lucinda