When John Hill arrived at OPP in 1993, he interviewed with Denny Bair and hit the ground running. His specialty was big boilers, and OPP needed someone to take care of the two boilers in the Physical Plant Building. John worked in the outside world for 15 years and thought Penn State would have all kinds of new beautiful equipment. That was not quite the case in 1993, but he says it's a lot better now.

 

John begins his day by syncing up his PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) and checking for new work orders and closing old ones. John's not actually the lead man on the crew, but he might as well be since he's 50% of the crew. The other half is Todd Naylor. John and Todd are Grade 3 technicians and they also work with two, grade 6 PM Mechanics. "There are always morning questions, what about this building, what about that shutdown, do we have equipment on site? If I get out of here by 7:30, I'm darn lucky!"

 

At that point they jump into their van and head out on assignment. They work on all shapes and sizes of boilers, furnaces, chicken scalders, ceramic kilns, hot water heaters, deep fryers, and kitchen ovens. The ovens are usually for research purposes and not in the dining halls since Housing maintains their own. Eighty percent of their work is in Area 1, mainly on the outskirts of campus.

 

"Supposedly, I'm told we have the longest job description that exists on campus because we do nearly all of our own plumbing, electrical work, and controls-and most of our sheet metal work unless it involves fabrication. We estimate our own jobs...most of them anyway...are just easier to do it ourselves." 

 

On Computers

 

"I don't use a computer because I don't know how, but the next guy will have to. We do have a computer which we share." Even though John uses a PDA for taking care of timecards and work orders, he has no love of computing. John believes in keeping things simple. When asked if he liked computers, he answered succinctly, "No."

 

Gas versus Steam

 

John gets lots of calls about people smelling gas. "We check those right away, sometimes it's just a dead pigeon stuck in a roof top unit." The most puzzling repair he ever had was out at the Hazmat Building. "They had this gas-fired furnace and it would just shut off for no reason. We tried for months to find the problem and finally ii shut down while I was there. It turned out that the polarity was reversed, which means that everything works except the flame sensor. So it starts up, lights, and shuts down. It does that three times and locks out. Turned out a building transformer was flip flopping the polarity. By the time the electrician arrived, everything went back to normal and he thought I was nuts! We finally got it figured out, but it was the strangest problem I've ever run into in my life, not just on campus."

 

John has never been injured on campus, but before working for OPP he had an oil burner blow up in his face. "I have all the sympathy in the world for burn victims after that incident. Oh, I've singed my hair a few times."

 

"Believe or not, gas is not the worst thing we work with. That would be steam. We don't even work with high-pressure stuff like the guys in our steam plants. We are super careful with live steam. If you break a fitting, steam doesn't stop, it just keeps on coming. Steam is just really scary."

 

The Boy from Beech Creek

 

John has seen the campus grow immensely, and he thinks Physical Plant is about triple the size of when he started. "Even ten years ago I could walk around this building all day and only see two people I didn't know. It isn't that way anymore. The students don't seem to be able to walk without a cell phone to their ear. For that reason, I always drive slowly on campus. I really don't want to hit anybody with my van."

 

As a guy from Beech Creek, John felt campus was a little overwhelming at first, but his can do attitude always overcame any challenge. He owns his own sawmill and has 34 acres of woods. "When we want to build something we start with tree. We cut it down, drag it in, saw it into boards, stack it, and dry it. When I was a kid if something broke, we got out the tools and tried to fix it."

 

Retirement Plans

 

John plans to work part-time in Quebec with a hunting and fishing outfitter. He intends to trade his repair skills for some quality time hunting Canadian moose a few weeks in the spring, summer, and fall. This will involve flying up in the spring to fire up the propane heaters and refrigerators in remote cabins prior to the hunters' arrival and then acting as their guide when they arrive.

 

He has already been Moose hunting five times and bagged a trophy twice. He shot one with a .444 Marlin at 180 yards and got the other one with a .325 Winchester Short Magnum at 263 yards. He shot that one across a lake. He just sat down and used his knee for a prop. The first shot missed, but John took ten deep breathes and the second shot hit home. "When you have to pack your moose half a mile out of a swamp, make sure you have two 30-year-olds along to help!" 

 

"I do all my own skinning and cutting. Moose meat is absolutely delicious. I got started by deer hunting here in Centre County and then picked up some brochures on moose hunting at the Harrisburg Outdoor Show in 1984. As soon as my kids grew up, I made my move and never looked back. My wife is going to retire this summer we plan to moose hunt in Quebec this fall and next year we plan to go caribou hunting. The caribou is a lot farther north and the hunt is on open tundra beyond the tree line. We have to drive 1,700 miles north and then take a plane further north." 

 

"OPP has provided me with a good living for 20 years and is providing me with a good retirement!" In return John provided Penn State with 20 years of outstanding service. OPP wishes John the best of retirement and hopes he bags many Moose or is it Meese!