Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 21, 1991 TAG: 9102210070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK LAYMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
That'll be Don Myers.
Or stop by the Pine Spur Hunt Club east of Vinton on a Saturday night, when the Craig County Boys are warming up the crowd with some foot-stompin' bluegrass. See the gangly, smokey-haired mandolin player?
That'll be Don Myers.
Or peek into the public budgeting class at Virginia Tech's Center for Public Administration and Policy on a Tuesday night. Check out the oldest master's-degree student in the class.
That'll be Don Myers again.
For 28 years, Myers was an executive at General Electric Co. plants in Salem, Portsmouth and Fort Wayne, Ind. Now he has a desk at the Roanoke County Administration Building, behind the door with the sign that reads "Assistant Administrator/Management Services."
"You can't tell him from one of the bureaucrats now," County Supervisor Bob Johnson joked recently.
Maybe not - until he gets to talking about running in the New York City Marathon last fall, or picking a tune with bluegrass legend Lester Flatt or meeting Elizabeth Taylor at former Gov. John Dalton's inaugural bash.
Myers, 56, grew up in Craig County and graduated from Virginia Tech.
He returned to Western Virginia in 1987 after an eight-year absence. At the time, he was manager of business information systems at GE's Fort Wayne plant, where he supervised 133 employees.
By then, "some of the excitement of moving around had begun to wear off," he recalled. "I changed my lifestyle after I moved away. I didn't play music. I never went camping any more."
And each time he and his family came back to visit, the Roanoke Valley "looked more beautiful than before."
He knew he couldn't find an equivalent job at the GE plant in Salem, where he had worked from 1960 to 1979. But when a friend told him that Roanoke County was advertising for a new director of management information systems, "it looked like a good match," Myers said.
A week after starting his new job, Myers was in the hospital. Before he left GE he had a complete physical, and the doctor called him in Roanoke with alarming news: An X-ray showed a growth on one of his lungs. The growth wasn't cancerous, but part of the lung was removed.
The following year, Myers was promoted to assistant county administrator for management services. He reports to County Administrator Elmer Hodge and oversees finance, management and budget; purchasing; real estate assessments; and the county's computer systems. He also has worked on special projects, such as the start-up of the county's police department last summer.
"Don's first-rate," said police Capt. Jack McCorkle, who worked closely with Myers. "He's able to see a problem and deal with it without dragging a lot of emotion into it. He's very organized; he's straightforward. . . . He expects a lot from himself and he expects a lot from others."
It was Myers who suggested that top county employees and the Board of Supervisors take the Myers-Briggs personality-type test, which is based on the theories of pioneering psychoanalyst Carl Jung. The test "helps to predict and explain how people will react under certain circumstances," he said. "It makes it easier to understand and deal with people. . . . We [on the county staff] refer to our types frequently. I think it's been real helpful."
Two California State Unversity psychologists who wrote a guidebook for the test describe Myers' personality type as decisive, dependable, quiet, serious and persevering.
"That's Don," Hodge said.
Because of Myers' management experience, "Elmer uses him as a trouble-shooter to straighten things out," Supervisor Steve McGraw said. For example, when residents of west Roanoke County complained that they were being ignored by the county, Hodge asked Myers to attend the monthly meetings of the Fort Lewis Civic League.
"He works well with groups of people," Johnson said. "He has a calming effect. He doesn't get frustrated or flustered."
Maybe that's because the return to his roots has been so satisfying for Myers. He's near his 79-year-old mother, who lives in New Castle. He teaches Sunday school at the New Castle Christian Church, where he was baptized. And he rejoined the Craig County Boys, a bluegrass quintet he helped organize 20 years ago.
"If I have one regret, it's that I didn't play professionally for a year or so" before going to work for GE, Myers said.
Still, while serving in the Air Force as a teletype operator during the Korean War, he formed a country band and played at military bases across Japan. He shared the stage with the Country Gentlemen, a nationally acclaimed bluegrass band, at Dalton's inaugural. And the Craig County Boys are a popular attraction at picnics, weddings and weekend hoedowns.
Myers didn't take up running until he was in his mid-40s. "I was doing a lot of traveling, not watching my diet, and I began to feel sluggish. I put on weight. So I decided to start an exercise program."
On his 50th birthday, a friend challenged him to run 10 miles. He did it - and kept going four more miles. A month later, he ran his first marathon, a 26-mile race. He's run the New York City Marathon three times, and hopes to do it again this November.
Myers met his wife, Miyoko, when he was in Japan during the Korean War, and they got married in 1954. Back home in Virginia, "she was wonderfully received," he said. "By the time my four years [in the Air Force] was up, she knew more people in Craig County than I did."
While Myers was a student at Tech, Miyoko worked as a seamstress to pay the bills. "We joke that she has a PHT degree - Putting Hubby Through," Myers said.
The couple has two sons, who live in Fort Wayne and in Charlotte, N.C.
In his last job at GE, Myers traveled to Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and other exotic locales.
"That was neat," he said. "But the job I have now is the most interesting that I've had, because of the variety. It's been a real learning and growing experience."
Myers still has a few years to go before retiring from his second career. But he's already thinking about a third.
"At GE, I taught some courses in financial management and computer programming. I liked it, and I got good ratings from the students. I thought it was something I might like to do someday."
So if, in six or eight years, you walk into a business management class at a local college and the instructor is sharing an anecdote about his years as an assistant administrator for Roanoke County . . .
That'll be Don Myers.
Keywords:
PROFILE
by CNB