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Environmental Progress - Winter 2005

IEPA Loses 38 Staffers to Retirement

Five "Charter Members" Included

Several veteran Illinois EPA staff members took retirement in 2004, most of them at the end of the year. They included five Agency "charter members" who joined the staff in IEPA's first year of operation that started on July 1, 1970.

Photo: Agency retirees

IEPA Director Renee Cipriano joined 2004 retirees at a reception in Springfield on Dec. 29 to thank them for their service to the public and wish them a happy retirement. Front row (left to right) Marilyn Moore, Linda Bennett, Ron Drainer, Jim Leinecke. Middle row: Sue Doubet, Linda Laws, Anne Alexander, Ginger Miller, Joan Muraro. Back row: John Little, Dick Forbes, Lalit Sinha, Dave Kolaz, Joe Svoboda, Director Cipriano, Jeff Johnston, Diane Blair

Anne Alexander of the Bureau of Water/Division of Public Water Supplies was one of the employees transferred from the Illinois Department of Public Health the first day Illinois EPA began operating. Anne retired the end of December after more than 59 years with state government. Prior to joining Public Health in 1952, she started in the Secretary of State's Office in 1945 and then moved to the staff of Governor Adlai Stevenson. In recent years, Anne was assistant to Division of Public Water Supplies Manager Roger Selburg.

The other "charter members" included Dave Kolaz, who as Chief of the Bureau of Air, was one of three senior staff managers (along with Chief Legal Counsel Joseph Svoboda and Director of Adminstration Jeff Johnston) who took retirement. The other charter staffers retiring were Linda Laws (Director's Office), James Leinicke (Bureau of Water), and Wallace Matsunaga (Bureau of Water/DesPlaines Regional Office).

They and other retirees from the Bureaus of Air, Land and Water, Divisions of Administration and Legal Counsel, and Director's and Associate Director's Offices, were feted at a reception at the historic Pasfield House in Springfield in December.

The other 2004 retirees were: Ethel Bachman (Air), Charles Bennett (Director's Office), Lynda Bennett (Air), Diane Blair (Air), Sue Doubet (Land), Ron Drainer (Water), Dick Forbes (Air), Al Garver (Water), Mary Grace Given (Legal), Diana Gobelman (Land), Marilyn Goodall (Land), Lieura Hackman (Land), Charles Hesemann (Air), Judith Knous (Land), John Little (Water), Ginger Miller (Land), LuAnne Miller (Administration), Ronald Miller (Land), Marilyn Moore (Land), Joan Muraro (Director's Office), Clark Olson (Water), James O'Donnell (Legal), Evelyn Pharris (Air), Robert Richardson (Water), Linda Simmons (Land-Marion Regional Office), Lalit Sinha (Water), Don Squires (Associate Director's Office), Jerre Staley (Water), Kathryn Taylor (Land), Brenda Tossi (Water), and Edward Turley (Air).