Delores Jeffries has finally decided to hang it all up and retire December 31, 2011. Delores has long been a mainstay of OIG-I and has watched countless numbers of us come and go over her 36+ years in headquarters. Her retirement party plans have not yet been finalized.
Delores put together a summary of her view of the early days of OIG-I. The older folks among us will recognize the names.
I began my career with the Office of Investigations on August 31, 1975 as a GS-5, Clerk Typist, I was interviewed and hired by Randy Brune, their offices were located from Room 24-E to 30-E in the basement of the Admin Building, now known as the Jamie Whitten Building. At that time Bob Magee was the Director and Otto O. Collins was the Deputy Director. Also on the staff were Randy Brune, Jim Hopkins, Floyd Cotton, Wayne Hanson, and Dick Allen. In 1978 the Offices’s of Audit, Investigations, Management, and I think the other one was called Evaluation and something else, I just don’t remember, came back together as one and was named the Office of the Inspector General, but the offices were still known as the Office of Investigations, Office of Audit, Office of Management and Evaluations.
Soon after the split the Office of Investigation and the Office of Audit were moved to the 4th floor and John Graziano became the Inspector General, with Bob Magee as Director of the Office of Investigations and Leonard Greese became the Director of the Office of Audit. The Office of Investigations had 3 division, the Rural Development and Farm Programs Division (Otto Collins); the Food Programs Division, (Tom Burke) and there was Security and Special Investigations (Bill Gould) and Mr. Wayne Hanson (aka B.F. Crows; B for Barley; F for Flaxseed; C for Corn; R for Rye ;O for Oats ;W for Wheat; and S for Sorghum) was in charge of the Grain/Hotline Desk. At that time I was working for Otto Collins and his crew, most of the guys were retired military so everyone was really laid back, that when I met Major General Monday aka Brian Heintzelman, we really enjoyed coming to work during that era, the two main jokesters were Wayne Hanson and Brian Heintzelman.
Bob Magee retired around 1980 and Tom Burke became the Director of Investigations, in 1982 I was transferred to the Food Programs Division which was then headed up by Floyd Cotton, soon after that Floyd was selected for the SAC position in the WR (1984) and later by Gordon K. Brown aka El Gordon, that’s around the time that I met Slow Pitch aka Henry Hairston, and Millard Reid, retired military guys, Hank worked for Gordon Brown, and Reid worked for Bill Gould and Bob Smith I also met John Jurich around that time. Brian Haaser and Jon Novak were new agents then, coming in to Headquarters from the West Coast. Other agents that came in around that time were the Kansas City syndrome which included Craig Beauchamp, Rob Hillman, Dave Dickson, and Ron Sidener. Craig, Rob, and Dave worked in SSO; Ron went to work for Otto Collins in Farm Programs.
Shortly after that, the Graz went over to Commerce, Craig and Rob Hillman went with him. I was still working in Food Programs Division. I think the Graz retired and Craig and Rob came back to USDA, Craig was the selected as the Director of SSO and Rob as his Deputy.
I guess around 1986, I was still in the Food Programs Division. In 1987 Craig was selected as the Director of Investigations and Tom Burke was his Deputy, and a second Deputy position was established and Jeff Rush got that position I was selected be Secretary to Jeff Rush (GS-318-8). Joyce Davies was Tom Burkes Secretary and Craig Beauchamp was the man in charge of all of Investigations with Jan Gaskins as his secretary. Not long after that Tom Burke decided to retire and his position was not filled. Around 1989 a job announcement came out for a position in Del Thornburg’s shop, Jan applied for that position and got it with a promotion to a higher grade, so the Sec to the Director of Investigation was vacant so I applied and got the position (GS-318-9). From then on I have been the Secretary to the AIGI for Investigations, so I’ve worked with Craig, Greg Seybold, Mark Woods and Karen Ellis. I think that is enough.
