Margaret Stroud looked up at Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s historic “hammerhead crane” in June 1963 as she walked through the gates toward her new job. She was 21 and excited about the future
On Tuesday — 60 years later — she signed out of the same shipyard for the last time. The newly-minted retiree’s view of the crane, looming 20 stories over the Elizabeth River, will be different now.
“Wherever you are in the shipyard, you see that big crane … They were good to give me a picture of that to take with me,” said Stroud, 81.
The Chesapeake resident dedicated her life to civil service, working at nearly a dozen commands across Hampton Roads over the past six decades. But it all began and ended with Norfolk Naval Shipyard.
Her time there began in 1942, when Stroud was less than a year old. Her father, Walter Leander Barnes, began working at the shipyard as an electrician following the attack on Pearl Harbor.
“Because of the buildup for the war (World War II), they built a lot of housing for shipyard workers,” Stroud said. “We lived there in the subsidized housing units until I was 11 years old.”
Stroud’s father was still working at the shipyard, climbing from electrician to firecontrollman, when Stroud applied for a job there.
“I wish I could say it was about patriotism, but it was money,” Stroud said with a laugh.
Stroud had been working at a downtown Portsmouth office when someone told her the shipyard paid more money and offered good benefits.
“So I went over to the shipyard and told them that I’d like to apply for a job. And the lady said, ‘Well, you have to take a typing test.’ So I did. And I got 100. I was so thrilled,” Stroud said, a smile stretched from ear to ear.
Stroud started at the shipyard two weeks later, working as a card punch operator.
“What a memorable year …,” Stroud began.
She recalled Nov. 22, 1963.
“I remember I was sitting in the shipyard training branch,” Stroud said. “And the lady beside me got a phone call saying that President John F. Kennedy had been shot and it was serious.”
Shortly after, they learned he had died.
“That was a shocker for all of us,” Stroud said. “And leaving work that day, you know, dozens of people coming out at the shipyard same time. Everybody looked like they were in shock.”
Stroud worked at Norfolk Naval Shipyard for several years until her family temporarily relocated to Richmond so her husband could get a master’s degree. During that time, she worked at the Veteran Administration Hospital and later at a Department of Defense supply center.
When they returned to Hampton Roads, she found work in the comptroller department of the shipyard and later with the Army Corps of Engineers in Norfolk. She began pursuing accounting and eventually made the switch to Fort Monroe when it was under the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command.
“I loved it so much there,” Stroud said. “I went back and forth to Fort Monroe every day. That was a pretty long drive because they didn’t have Monitor Merrimac (Bridge Tunnel) then — it was all down James River Bridge, down Mercury Boulevard.”
Stroud worked as an accounting technician for 10 years before her office was downsized, forcing her to transfer to Defense Finance and Account Service at Naval Station Norfolk. She was there for another decade before it was closed. Her next journey took her to the budget office at Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, then back to Naval Station Norfolk to work for Joint Forces Command until it was disestablished.
She transferred to Joint Staff in Suffolk, where a few years later a budget cut led to her being laid off. She worked at the Sewells Point Occupational Safety and Health Center at Navy Region Mid-Atlantic before going back to Norfolk Naval Shipyard, where she was placed in the Nuclear Planning & Engineering Department as an administrative assistant.
“I came back to the shipyard in 2015 before the safety center was hit with a cutback and told them I may be a jinx,” she said. “There were closures, disestablishments, civilian personnel cuts everywhere I went.”
By that time, Stroud had been offered retirement twice.
“But I couldn’t afford it … And I have enjoyed all of my jobs — every one of them,” Stroud said.
Throughout her career, Stroud went to night school and worked to keep up with technology, which was quickly evolving.
“I was in accounting when personal computers came out, so I did not get all the training in Microsoft that the average person got,” she said. “So, when I went back into administration, it was a challenge for me. Trying to do intermediate Outlook and Excel and PowerPoint — it was hard.
“I don’t think I would have been successful if I hadn’t had good people willing to help me when I got a difficult task.”
The use of personal computers and cellphones, she said, made her job obsolete.
“All the bosses have cellphones, so people don’t call a secretary to make an appointment with the boss,” Stroud said. “They just call the boss. There just wasn’t that much work to do anymore. The hardest job was finding something to do all day.”
Furthering her decision to finally retire, Stroud said, was news of the Chinese Navy’s aggressive shipbuilding, putting the country on track to surpass the capabilities and capacity of the U.S. in the next few years. And, according to Stroud, leadership will replace her with an engineer, rather than an administrative assistant.
“I knew they really needed engineers quickly to get them trained and prepare for what the Navy may have to do,” she said. “So, I felt like I was doing more for my country by retiring than actually staying. So I was happy to be able to retire.”
Stroud plans to volunteer at local schools and libraries to teach children how to read. She also has volunteered to work the hospitality desk at Portsmouth Naval Medical Hospital, and is waiting to hear back from the Chesapeake School District and Red Cross.
“I haven’t built up excitement yet. It is more like, ‘Oh dear, what do I do now?’ ” she said. “Perhaps if I knew where I was going, I could focus more. But now it is just day to day, having lunch and getting acquainted with people I only had email time for before.
Stroud shared with The Virginian-Pilot a message to her written by Norfolk Naval Shipyard public affairs.
“After 60 years, Norfolk Naval Shipyard extends a Bravo Zulu to Margaret Stroud and offers a heartfelt thank you for her years of service. Fair winds and following seas, Mrs. Stroud. May your next journey be just as incredible as the first,” it reads.
Caitlyn Burchett, caitlyn.burchett@virginiamedia.com
