Bob Myrick began working for Physical Plant in 1988. He moved here from Wyoming wearing his trademark bolo tie to take a job as an Architect in the OPP Design Room. He also brought his Lederhosen and clarinet, but more on that later. 

Bob had lots of experience in the early days of AutoCad type drawing, and he helped OPP move forward with that new technology. He originally worked for Lisa Berkey who managed the Design Room at that time.

He was such a 'Dam Kid'

Bob grew up as a "dam kid" in Montana. His father was an electrical engineer specializing in hydroelectric dams. They lived at Maroney Dam where his father worked. Their family often moved from one dam place to another. After Maroney Dam it was Hauser Dam at Helena and later on to Butte Hydroelectric. 

"One power plant was always shutting down unexpectedly. It seems that one of the sensors was installed on the sanitary water pipe instead of the turbine feed line and any time someone flushed a toilet the entire hydroelectric dam shut down. It was the hardest problem to figure out until they realized the power aborts were synchronized with the toilet flushes!"

"We always lived in the country near the dams and had to stock up on food in the winter because it was 20 miles on skis to get to town, and the ski trail was usually between steep cliffs and the river." Bob's first part-time work in high school was with an architectural firm where he made 25 cents an hour.

After college Bob was principal in the Architectural firm of Dienes, Myrick, and Mclain. Their firm had 36 employees and specialized in the design, development and construction of penitentiaries and dams. The Wyoming economy had been booming until the price of oil dropped to $8 dollars a barrel, and their $10 million architectural projects dried up. Bob headed east to Penn State in search of warmer weather and a better economy.

State College Is the Banana Belt

Bob's first winter at OPP turned out to be blizzard central. No one told him about shutdown procedures, so when the worst storm of the decade hit, he put chains on his car and came to work. "I drove into an empty parking lot and entered the building, and the only person I could find was Norm Bedell (AVP back then). We chatted awhile, and then I went back home thinking if they shut down for this little storm, life in Pennsylvania might be a bit easier than life in Wyoming. Maybe I had just moved to the banana belt!"

Bob's early projects at OPP included the Golf Club House, Wartik Commons, Pond Building police offices and layouts in Old Main. He did a lot of programming for facilities (space management) which led to his current position with Deb Howard in Facilities Resources and Planning (FRP).

Just Take Him Out to the Wood Shed

Deb Howard consolidated FRP by moving her scattered team (physically not mentally) into the old OPP lumber shed (Room 168). "We were concerned until we found out that the shed actually had real walls and carpeting. There was, however, a 2.5" drop on the floor from one wall to the other for drainage purposes before the walls were built. We could easily roll marbles around the building."

From the Wood Shed to Park Avenue

After a few years, FRP moved to new offices on Park Avenue where the Day Care Center is now. Bob was assigned to take responsibility for the 365 general purpose instructional classrooms all over campus. "I thought, oh my gosh, this is a huge amount of stuff to be involved with. I had to spend a lot of time developing priorities. My job was to check classroom quality and condition, identify sub-standard rooms and see what could be done to improve them. When I started, a lot of seats were bolted down. Our goal was to introduce flexibility with SSTs (Stacking Student Tables, not Super Sonic Transports), which gave the students both left and right hand writing positions and allowed desks to be shifted together for group work."

What Kind of Group Work Did You Have In Mind?

Unfortunately some of our more creative students have been known to shift desks together for unauthorized purposes. Bob Myrick has never personally seen such activities, but one of his committee members reportedly went to see how his movable classroom desks were being used. "She was quite surprised and had to back out of the room very quickly."

Was that Bob Myrick or Bob DeNiro?

One of Bob's favorite films is "Brazil" where the mechanical and electrical conduits take over building space and humans are squeezed into tiny cubicles between the HVAC systems. That's the way some Penn State classrooms were trending in the 90s. "I thought 'this is not a good environment for learning,' and I began pulling that spaghetti off the walls and adding carpeting for noise control." In the film, Robert DeNiro sneaks into office buildings after hours and fixes things. Bob Myrick probably has more in common with Bob DeNiro than folks realize.

The old classrooms were just big boxes with inconsistent lighting. Some rooms would have 200-foot candle lighting, and some only 20. Bob and his team created classroom standards for campus and got rid of most of the raised platforms on campus that created hazards for instructors. Bob introduced the dual table armchair to campus so left and right-handed students were treated equally. He also diversified Auditorium seat sizing. "Our seating can now accommodate tall people, short people, wide people, and people without meat on their bones." Bob's work has had an impact on every student who attends class (and we hope that's every one of them!). Bob also was involved with bringing dual technology sensors (both motion and sound) to classrooms so that the classroom lights wouldn't shut off during tests.

We Just Can't Swallow the No Food Policy

"One morning we got a panic call from Area Services at 7 a.m. 'Can you come down to Sparks quickly?' Someone had plastic-wrapped all the seats in room 10 and 121 Sparks and placed wet garbage on every seat turning the entire classroom into a huge messy sandwich. Thanks to Area Services calling in everyone they could find, we got the rooms cleaned up by class start time at 8 a.m. OPP asked the police to keep the matter quiet so that the pranksters would not get satisfaction. The perpetrators were never found, but the prank was likely revenge for the classroom no food policy."

Drunk Tank Pink

Bob introduced many colors to Penn State classrooms, which created a lot of concern among certain administrative offices. "I was approached by an OPP painter and asked if I was involved with adding all the colors. I thought, 'oh boy, here it comes.' Well, it turned out he really liked it because he was getting tired of all the white, and it made his job a lot more fun!" Research has shown that lots of colors can boost learning by 10-15%. Years earlier, Bob designed a psychiatric hospital and found that a particular tone of pink is very calming to violent patients. It's also used for jails and is called "drunk tank pink."

My Whistle, My Baton and My Lederhosen

Few OPP employees wear lederhosen anymore, at least not in public, but Bob frequently pulls on a pair as part of his performance attire. Bob is an expert musician and plays clarinet with the "Bavarian Stompers" and the "Little German Band." He can be often seen performing at the "Olde New York" restaurant and out at the Grange Fair. He has also served as the Drum Major for the Army National Guard Band and served as a member of the Western State Band. As Drum Major he drilled the band and got everyone in shape. Bob is likely the only OPP employee to have ever marched the entire six miles in the Pasadena Rose Bowl Parade.

Retirement Plans

Bob is retiring on March 31 and plans to continue his musical pursuits. He is also Co-advisor to the Penn State Model Railroad Club and the Nittany Valley Model Railroad Club in Spring Mills. He plans to spend several days a week in retirement working with his favorite clubs and donning his lederhosen for musical interludes. Bob is headed for a great retirement and his co-workers will always be able to find him wherever good German music is being played.