Two employees of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Legacy Management are co-winners of the Philip C. Leahy Employee of the Year award.
Created in 2017, the Leahy award recognizes Legacy Management employees who are outstanding team players, including they are “dependable, enthusiastic, prepared, tenacious and self-improving,” the DOE said. The two honorees, Information Technology Specialist Bob Walker and Engineer Bill Frazier, a site manager of Grand Junction, Colo., were both announced as winners in separate Nov. 8 news releases.
“First, I’m very proud of this distinction. Those of us in IT are usually only recognized on the few days when things are not working as planned. We are often overlooked on most days when things are working,” Walker said in the release. “The IT team has many areas in which we can improve, and we continue to strive to make those improvements. However, I don’t forget how hard we work. to go unnoticed. So, it is satisfying to be acknowledged for the many good days, as opposed to the few bad.”
A Morgantown, W.V., native, Walker wrote code part-time for a contractor that supported DOE National Energy Technology Laboratory. The job became full-time after Walker graduated from West Virginia University, the release said.
“I became interested in computer science before it exploded into what it is today. At the time, only a few people had personal computers in their home, and the internet was a bulletin board, accessible by a very slow telephone modem,” Walker said in the release. “I was attracted to technology because I appreciated the efficiency that computers could achieve to perform tasks.”
As a Legacy Management employee, Walker helped establish budgeting and capital planning activities that the Archives and Information Management team performed, the release reported.
“I have been the acting AIM team leader for six months and have a better appreciation for how good of a leader is Doc Parks. He makes it looks easy, but he leads by example and actively helps everyone around him improve their skills,” Walker said in the release. “That’s what I’ve been trying to do with the new hires. I spend a lot of time disseminating a lot of my corporate knowledge to the newer AIM team staff members, so they can maximize their technical skills to support LM.”
Walker is challenged with differentiating enterprise-level products from products found in the home, the release said.
“There are many niche apps and IOT (Internet of Things) products that can accomplish specific tasks, incredibly easily,” Walker said in the release. “However, those companies often focus very little on security, nor do they have any sort of capability to be ‘managed’ centrally. It is often a tremendous amount of effort to reverse engineer those items, or to try and determine what needs secured, and if we can do so at scale efficiently.”
IT Specialist Kyle Brown nominated Walker for the award in part because of the way he easily handles challenges, the release said.
“Bob is someone very deserving of his nomination for employee of the year for many reasons. To sum it up, he is someone who has taken on many challenges and held himself accountable for anything that he does,” Brown said in the release. “A major challenge that Bob has succeeded in that I admire the most is his ability to take on an even bigger challenge in being a team lead. He has a great vision for the LM mission and has been very influential, encouraging and supportive to his team members, and those are some attributes I see that make him a great leader.”
Walker said in the release that he hopes to continue working in IT at Legacy Management.
“The reason I like working for LM is the clarity and alignment of the LM mission to the goals. This flows down to the teams and the individuals. I have always felt that LM lays out clear objectives and then provides the employees the tools and training to work toward those goals,” Walker said, according to the release. “Being a parent is what I am most proud of. My daughter Jessica is a junior at WVU. I like to think I had something to do with it, but she and her mom probably have more to do with it than I ever did.”
Frazier “manages long-term care at Title I and Title II Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act (UMTRCA) sites that have been transitioned to DOE,” the release announcing his award said. Title II transition sites yet to be transferred to the Department of Energy are also under his assignment.
“I am honored to be an Employee of the Year, especially knowing the skill level and aptitude of my LM co-workers and how amazing they are,” Frazier said in the release. “It’s such a pleasure to work alongside them. We have a wonderful group of people in LM.”
A member of the Navajo Tribe, Frazier is a U.S. Navy veteran, the release said. He has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and is a registered professional engineer in Colorado.
“I have managed many design and construction projects over the years and managing site responsibilities is not much different. Design and construction are a part of some site activities, so I fit in well with that,” Frazier said in the release. “I found that there are no shortcuts to the time and effort you put into things. If you put the time and effort into anything in life, it will show.”
LM Supervisory Engineer Paul Kerl nominated Frazier for the Leahy award because of his “can-do attitude” and being a team player as site manager, the release said.
“Since you joined LM in November 2016 as site manager, you were quickly identified as a caring, competent and dependable asset not only to LM-21, but also to LM holistically,” Kerl said about Frazier in his nomination letter, according to the release. “You have routinely been recognized as the ‘most trusted advisor’ for engineering expertise across the board to your teammates.”
Frazier helped foster communication during a multi-federal agency forum held in April in Gallup, N.M., the release reported.
“You paid particular attention to assure the complicated technical issues were presented in an easily understandable manner,” Kerl said in the release. “Your presentation was well received and demonstrated the commitment of the Secretary of Energy to meaningful, open and effective engagement with the Native American communities. President Nez personally acknowledged and thanked you for your attendance and support.”
Frazier credited participation in the leadership skills group Toastmasters with the confidence he has in representing Legacy Management, according to the release.
“I got comfortable speaking in public,” Frazier said in the release. “I just got used to it.”
According to the release, Kerl said Frazier is “a true team player in every sense of the word.”
"What you bring to the table every day goes well beyond your primary responsibilities,” Kerl said in the release. “You are one of the greatest assets LM has to offer. Thank you for a job well done Mr. Frazier!”
