Recently retired OSU Extension Office Manager Kim McCullough stands with the new office manager, Chelsie Hulse-Gibson, outside of the OSU Extension Office at Columbia Gorge Community College in The Dalles.
Recently retired OSU Extension Office Manager Kim McCullough stands with the new office manager, Chelsie Hulse-Gibson, outside of the OSU Extension Office at Columbia Gorge Community College in The Dalles.
When Kim McCullough started as a clerk typist for Wasco County in the 1980s, she had to take a civil service test to make sure she was prepared for the job. With questions focusing on math, grammar and clerical skills, it seemed like it would cover all that she needed. However, neither the test nor McCullough herself could ever have predicted how much more she would end up doing.
Before long, the Wasco County Extension Service was transferred to Oregon State University’s responsibility, and with it went McCullough. She wasn’t adverse to the change, though. The mission of extension was still the same, and that was to support the community.
“Extension was set up to help the community and any needs that they had, and in the old days that may have meant making mattresses during the war efforts or teaching cooking classes or sewing classes,” McCullough said. “It’s evolved over the years, and I think that’s what has kept me here is that it has been ever changing. Nothing is static here, and so it’s always been interesting. It’s not like doing the same job.”
With the overarching goal of helping the community, tons of different jobs and opportunities would land in McCullough’s lap, she said. She began helping with 4H and became the 4H agent, in charge of a building at the fair.
“As soon as I’d get through year-end books, I’d be in fair mode,” McCullough said. “Running that, with all the live contests and getting judges and being out at fair.”
McCullough has been involved in fair for at least 30 years now, she said, something that she remembers because of a personal milestone in her life.
“When I started work, my oldest child was 2 and my middle son, who was then my youngest, was 6 months,” she said. “And I have one more son and I brought him straight from the hospital to the office because he came early and I didn’t have somebody’s travel reimbursement done. So my husband dropped us off at the office, he was in a little car seat thing and I put him under my desk and took care of it.”
McCullough’s children grew up with extension and 4H because of her job, she said, which was an opportunity she was glad they had.
“I had never done 4H as a kid,” she said. “I grew up in Tacoma and in the city. So to do 4H was unheard of. I entered fair under open class when I was a kid, right, we didn’t have any animals. Well, that evolved into me being the 4H hog leader in Dufur because my kids wanted to raise hogs and we lived outside of Dufur.”
When her children had started 4H, they had a great leader, but that leader’s kids grew out of the program and somebody needed to take over. So McCullough stepped up.
“If your kids want to do something, I believe you better be able to step up and help out,” she said. “So that meant I learned about hogs.”
Stepping up has always been something McCullough was willing to do. As personnel have left extension, she’s stepped up to help fill the holes they left behind.
At the time of her retirement, McCullough was working as administrative office manager, budget officer, county liaison, Master Gardener coordinator, and Hood River Extension Office office support.
With extension having been such a big part of her life for so long, it does feel strange to leave, but there are things she will still be involved in. She will continue to work with Master Gardener until they can find a replacement, and she’ll be working part-time with Hood River on a temporary position until the end of the fiscal year. She also currently heads Strong Women classes, which serves as strength training for older people, which she thinks she’ll continue to do as long as she’s able, because she’s passionate about it, she said.
Though she’s not sure what the future will hold, McCullough said she’s looking forward to having some free time and being able to travel and spend time with her grandkids.
“I don’t want to be tied to a schedule for a while,” she said. “My goal is to be at all my grandchildren’s birthdays. I just returned from the oldest’s (in Texas) and have all the other’s scheduled. I have two more in September and then December and one in February, so it’s a lot all at once but I’ll be able to go. And I’m really, really looking forward to that.”
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