Summer 2007

Employee Spotlight: Joan O'Bannon

God gives all men all earth to love, But, since man's heart is small, Ordains for each one spot shall prove Beloved over all. - Rudyard Kipling

Joan O'Bannon's home on the edge of Norman is her sanctuary. This "one spot beloved over all" is a summer night on her deck, listening to the din of cicadas and frogs and watching the fireflies. It is a peaceful and friendly neighborhood where everyone has a little space, and the squirrels seem to have the upper-paw. They eat the bedding plants and container plants, bang the dog’s aluminum water dish around when it’s empty and help themselves to birdseed (sometimes while it’s still in the bag). The indigo and painted buntings are a rare treat at the feeders, while the woodpeckers, cardinals and goldfinches are regulars who seem to be content with their nuisance neighbors. Deer and wild turkeys occasionally make appearances, but it is the pesky armadillos that are most destructive and least welcome. Her indoor pets, a Catahoula-Doberman named Shiloh and a calico cat were both rescue animals. Shiloh escorts her on a perfect two mile walk where they are frequently joined by any number of neighborhood dogs.

Before desktop publishing, almost every NSSL graphic, published in papers and otherwise, came from Joan's designer eye and skilled fingers. From the days of Leroy lettering (a manual lettering set consisting of templates, a scriber, and a set of pens) to designing and managing Web sites now, Joan's career has evolved with technology. She learned how to draft figures after college and did freelance work at the OU School of Meteorology. It was the perfect niche, and the need was there. NSSL hired Joan in 1979. She remembers when the journals limited color graphics. "Each color had to be drafted separately, a negative made, colored transparencies overlaid, then a picture taken of each ‘color’ with a pin registered camera." Once the digital age arrived, "computers drastically changed everything." NSSL researchers now do all of their own graphics and posters. "It was evolutionary for everyone," she says.

Joan has enjoyed taking her career and shaping it in a direction that is meaningful to NSSL. She currently manages the OAR Web site and co-manages NSSL's Web site, which recently received a major face-lift. "I like the freedom to create, to showcase the lab." She describes her work in terms of projects and appreciates that they have a beginning and an end. The biggest and longest project for Joan was the NSSL self-guided tour - a series of large posters displayed in the halls of NSSL that described severe weather and NSSL's severe weather research. An old project she is proud of is "VORTEX: Unraveling the Secrets" on the NOAA Story web site. Co-authored with former NSSL employee Ann McCarthy and named the "Best WWW Page of OAR," this work led directly to assuming responsibility for the design and upkeep of the OAR Web site. NSSL, BAMEX and IPEX logos, displays for conferences, the Doppler radar paperweight, NSSL brochures -- all have come from Joan.

Joan retired quietly at the beginning of 2006, but continues to work part-time from her west-facing NWC office under contract. She plans to keep working as long as she is enjoying herself. "My life is full," she says. Baking her own bread, reading voraciously, playing twice a month in her bridge group of 30 years, OU theater, OU Women’s Basketball, and her grandchildren keep her plenty busy. When Joan does actually choose to retire, she wants to spend more time visiting her kids, go on a sailboat cruise off the Northeast U.S. coast, take a walking tour of Italy, and work at keeping her home and sanctuary a natural and welcome place for all the critters.