Emeritus Spotlight: Natalie Thomas

Where have the past seven years gone since retiring in September 1994? Retirement certainly Hasn’t been a time for slowing down. Travel and work continue.

Several trips with husband, Don, have been taken which included ten days in Switzerland and a Fourteen-day Mediterranean Cruise, (1994); a cruise around the Hawaiian Islands after a visit to San Diego, California (1995); Egypt with a cruise up the Nile River (1996); two excursions up through the Inside Passage of Alaska (1997 & 1998); as well as several trips to Vermont to visit family with three side trips to North Carolina (1995,1998, & 2000) to visit a friend unable to travel. Spring 2000; we flew to Oregon to drive a new motorhome up the Alaskan highway observing the changes since my last trip in 1968. During the summer months we try to get in a few motorhome camping trips with the family.

1995 was a transition year from work into retirement. Due to a grant obtained for distance learning, I agreed to part-time work with the Alaska Cooperative Extension Service. The grant was a continuation of my doctoral emphasis as well as focused on my passion to get more distance learning opportunities to rural Alaska. The project reached across all program areas with interest from the SafeServe Food Manager Certification Training Program, the Master Gardeners, and the Fisheries program. Programs were taught via audioconference. The SafeServe Food Manager Certification Program continues and also won a spin-off grant for teaching materials from the Chancellor. Three Alaskans attended the International Distance learning Conference in March 1995 in Washington, DC.

June 1996 got off to a running start teaching Master Food Preserver Volunteers how to can salmon prior to driving to Wasilla for a reunion of Extension Home Economists arranged by the Homemakers at their annual conference. It was great fun seeing retired coworkers who traveled from New Mexico, California, Oregon and South Dakota as well as Alaskans I had not seen in a long time. Jean Burand from New Mexico rode to Fairbanks to stay with us and to visit other friends during the week. We checked out all the sights since it had been twenty-two years since Jean left Alaska.

I continue to keep two certifications: an Alaska Teaching Certificate, and Certification for Family and Consumer Sciences. I enrolled at UAF in the fall 1997 to learn a new multimedia-authoring program: Macromedia Director. This program puts all the media into one program in a digitized format-sound, video, animation, graphics and photographs. I completed a course during the Spring Semester to learn HyperCard, and a summer session course for teachers. I wanted to learn the multimedia software and also used the credits to renew the Alaska Teaching Certificate and the Family and Consumer Sciences Certification.

Due to the multimedia project started in the fall of 1997 during one of the classes, I applied and was awarded a mini-grant from Epsilon Sigma Phi Honorary Fraternity. It’s always a great challenge! A copy of the finished project can be seen by downloading "Faces That Make A Difference" from the new Epsilon Sigma Phi Extension Honorary Fraternity website at http://www.uaf.edu/coop-ext/esp. The project features five individuals that made a difference in the lives of individuals while serving in an educational capacity for the Cooperative Extension Service. Individuals featured are Lydia Fohn-Hansen, Arthur Buswell, Agnes Sunnell, Virgil Severns, and Jane Windsor. While there are many more individuals to be featured, this project was limited to five. Also, the Alaska Chapter of Epsilon Sigma Phi Extension Honorary Fraternity, has a website that is connected to the National website. During my retirement, I have also served on the National ESP Global Relations Committee. Also, I have attended the annual Professional Development Conference in Anchorage while serving as president of the Fairbanks Chapter of Family and Consumer Sciences, and as chair of the Lydia Fohn-Hansen/Lola Hill Memorial Scholarship selection committee.

Annually, I have represented the Alaska Chapter of ESP as the voting delegate at the Conference in Atlanta where I was a presenter as well; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Salt Lake City, Utah. I also represented ESP at the Western Region Leadership Workshops such as the one in Albuquerque, New Mexico (1996). I stayed a few days extra to visit Jean and Bill Burand. Again, I represented the Alaska Chapter of Epsilon Sigma Phi at the Western Regional Leadership Workshop in San Diego, California (1997). Three Alaskans, Jo Anne Martin and Linda Athons and I, attended the workshop and visited the Zoo.

I attended the first Galaxy Summit in Cincinnati in October 1997. It had been planned for nine years to enable four organizations (Agriculture, 4-H, Family and Consumer Sciences, and Epsilon Sigma Phi) to hold a conference together. There were five who attended from Alaska. There will be a Galaxy II, September 22-23, 2003 in Salt Lake City.

During the summer of 1998 Don and I cruised the Alaska Inside Passage on a small cruise ship with seventy-seven people aboard for seven nights. The prior summer, we had spent nine days on the ferry exploring the Inside Passage with my parents and their camper.

Mid-October 1998, I flew to Anchorage to attend the Alaska Family and Consumer Science Conference. It is combined with five other organizations so there were lots of different programs and teachers in fields of family and consumer sciences, business, vocational, adult basic education, and counselors.

On August 11^th, 1999, Don and I flew to Seattle and on to Tacoma to attend the West Coast Family Reunion that was great fun since I had only met two of the relatives. I had been helping a cousin locate genealogy information. Another highlight of the trip was a side-trip to Victoria, BC for two nights via the Victoria III Catamaran that leaves from the Seattle waterfront. On October 12^th, I flew to Vermont to visit my Folks for two weeks during the fall foliage,

In March 2000, Mary Anne Greenlund, visited Alaska immediately following the Western Regional Leadership Workshop in Tucson, AZ. I convinced her to represent Alaska at the workshop. Mary Anne continued on to Alaska. She wanted to report immediately on the workshop and visit friends in Fairbanks.

In May 2000, Don and I flew to Oregon to pick up a thirty-eight foot 1984 ForeTravel motorhome. We spent three weeks getting our new motorhome and driving back up the highway. The trip home from Oregon was nice with seven nights on the road.

Since receiving my doctorate in 1992, I always don my Boston University gown and march at the UAF Commencement. It’s nice to see the faculty, the special recognition given, and to see students receive their diplomas.

Since 1997, two grandchildren, both boys who are two months apart in age, have occupied a great part of our lives for the past four years while serving as primary caregiver. It’s quite a different experience from that of raising your own children!

Of course, it should’t go unmentioned that I attend as many of the cultural activities in Fairbanks that I can possibly fit in during the year.

I continue to keep in touch with the network of colleagues from the fifty states as well as friends I met while studying at various universities. Electronic mail is wonderful and I remain on the Family Resource Management Specialist’s mailing list where the latest developments of information are distributed. It was great to see Dr. Colein Hefferan, as the new administrator of CSREES, when she visited Alaska. I have known her for many years from attending conferences.

Retirement is great! I can’t imagine not living near a university!

Natalie Thomas served as extension home economist with the Cooperative Extension Service from 1970-1994. Her first four years she held a half-time position as the Expanded Fad and Nutrition Education Program Coordinator. She is best known for the Getting Organized Series which includes the Money Management Calendar developed while she served as the Family Resource Management Specialist at the state level for 8 years. Her district, statewide, national and international travel allowed for networking with many individuals.

Source: 2002 Cooperative Extension Annual Report

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