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Ruth Pommier's Irish luck only took her so far.
She said the rest was hard work.
The 70-year-old University Housing clerk at Southern Hills is retiring May 1 after nearly 20 years at SIUC. During her stay, Pommier served both students and fellow employees.
Her employment consisted of routine clerical work, she said, but the job did not confine her to an office. She frequently traveled to Springfield between 1997 and 1999 to fight for the health benefits of more than 40,000 university employees throughout the state, she said.
In 1997, the Illinois Legislature took away health benefits for retired university employees by requiring them to work a minimum of 20 years, instead of the eight promised by the employee contract, to receive health care benefits after retirement.
Pommier said she couldn't sit idly by while the state broke a promise.
"It was an injustice," she said. "People had made a promise, they accepted it in good faith and then it was stripped away from them. These were the very people who were the most vulnerable and who had the least resources."
Three years and 85,000 letters to the Legislature later, the original health plan was restored to university employees, much to the relief of Pommier.
"To get a piece of legislation passed and then to get a piece of legislation reversed is nearly impossible," she said. "But we did it."
A 1959 graduate from Rosary College, Pommier taught English at the high school of her youth, Hall Township High School, for 15 years before becoming the department chair of Harvard High School's English department.
Five years later, Pommier's 20-year formal teaching career ended and she and her husband, Richard, traveled south so he could pursue a doctorate at SIUC.
The two never left.
"We fell in love with the area," she said. "What was to have been a three year stint developed into a full-blown 22-and-a-half year second career here at SIU."
Pommier said she has had great opportunities during her career at the university, including being president of the Association of Civil Service Employees - a group that represents the largest amount of SIUC civil service employees -- from 1999 to 2005. She also earned a spot on the Civil Service Council three times to represent her colleagues in Student Affairs.
"It is not terribly common for someone with the title of clerk to have the good fortune to be elected by her peers to the Civil Service Council, which I served on for seven years," she said.
Pommier received the University Civil Service Woman of Distinction Award in 1998 and was also given the Civil Service Outstanding Civil Servant Award in 2005. Pommier claims Irish luck had something to do with her success.
"I discovered something," she said. "My good Irish luck seemed to always improve the harder I worked."
Pommier has also been an encouragement to some.
Bonnie Bateman, an accountant for University Housing, said she started at the university the same summer as Pommier.
The close proximity of their offices led to friendship, and Bateman said Pommier was influential in her participation with the Association of Civil Service Employees, of which she is now treasurer.
Bateman said Pommier is a caring person who always remembered her birthday and even helped her during times of distress.
Pommier has a willingness to do the small things others don't think about, Bateman said. These things go underappreciated, but she said Pommier would be missed once they stop getting done.
Pommier has been critical of some university decisions, including the recent near $500,000 raise for Saluki men's basketball Coach Chris Lowery. Her letters to local publications and speeches at Board of Trustees meetings to oppose raises for athletic officials have drawn the ire of many Saluki supporters.
But through it all, Bateman said Pommier has been a proponent of SIUC.
"The university is losing an asset by Ruth retiring," she said.
Civil Service Council President Jay Brooks said he admired the work Pommier did before he met her nearly 10 years ago. Brooks said they were colleagues on the Civil Service Council and said Pommier has been held with high regard by many civil service employees.
Brooks said Pommier has often used her resources to help those who couldn't help themselves.
"She is a voice, many times, for folks who have no voice, as an advocate," he said.
ryan_rendleman@dailyegyptian.com 536-3311 ext. 268
