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Kane native misses the little things about her hometown |
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Written by Publisher
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Saturday, 13 June 2009 |
Photo submitted
Gretchen Bostaph Murri enjoys living in Virginia, but is fond of her hometown, Kane.
By Mary Sirianni
Special to The Kane Republican
Despite living in southern Virginia for nearly 30 years, Kane native Gretchen Bostaph Murri has yet to develop an accent or a love for local favorites like okra, catfish or NASCAR races.
“I would like to go to a monster truck rally, though,” she said.
She said she enjoys the southern dialect, explaining that “people never use one or two words if they can use five or six to say the same thing.”
It’s common to hear something called a “true fact” or that an event happened at “5 o’clock a.m. in the morning” instead of 5 a.m.
Even though parts of southern life have rubbed off on her, one aspect of her job hasn’t.
“I work in the aerospace field, but I hate to fly in airplanes,” she said.
For the past 28 years, she has worked at NASA’s Langley Research Center near Hampton, Va., as a research aerospace engineer in the Durability, Damage Tolerance and Reliability Branch. In this position, she makes computer models and performs tests on composite materials, like fiberglass or graphite used for helicopters and commercial aircraft, to determine how and why the pieces fail and then predict or avoid future failures.
In addition to working on a variety of projects, she has traveled around the world to attend conferences and meetings. She enjoyed visiting the extensive aeronautical museum in Dayton, Ohio. Climbing the stairs to the clock tower at St. Paul’s Cathedral was a highlight of a trip to London. When in Japan, she visited Hindu shrines and sat on the floor at a restaurant to eat raw eel and drink sake. She says she does not recommend either delicacy.
The daughter of the late Richard and Bonnie Bostaph, Murri graduated from Kane Area High School in 1976, where she was class co-valedictorian and was named a National Merit Scholar. She was active in the National Honor Society, junior and senior class plays, marching band color guard, Hurri-Kane yearbook staff, and the Nike Club, a service organization.
Murri attended Penn State University, graduating in 1981 with a bachelor’s in aerospace engineering. She also earned a master’s in applied mathematics from Old Dominion University in 1989. She said her high school teachers gave her a strong foundation in math and science and supported her interest in engineering.
“They never made me think that I shouldn’t pursue any career field, even one that was not traditional for women.”
Despite her interest in math and science, her most inspiring instructor was Humanities teacher Arlene Heath. Mrs. Heath challenged her students to evaluate their beliefs and refused to accept “pat answers” to any question.
Murri said she still thinks about Mrs. Heath when browsing library shelves for a good book.
“She really stressed the idea of only reading the very best literature,” Murri said.
Being surrounded by people in Kane who valued and exemplified hard work and responsibility had the most impact on her.
“Whining was pretty much not tolerated, and you knew it wasn’t ‘all about you.’”
She took these attitudes with her to Virginia when she began working at NASA in 1981. During her first years there, she met Dan Murri, an aeronautical engineer who also works at the Langley Research Center. They married in 1984 and have two children, Chris, 16, and Sam, 13.
The Murri family lives in York County, Va.., which boasts moderate weather and four distinct seasons. They are also close to many cultural, historical, and recreational sites, like Colonial Williamsburg, the College of William and Mary, Jamestown, Yorktown, Busch Gardens and Virginia Beach.
Living in the York County area has a few downsides, like the annual hurricane season and being too far away from Kane for a weekend trip. Her brother, Marvin, and sisters Julie and Jan live in Kane, as do other relatives and extended family.
“I wish we could get back to visit more often than we do. You don’t realize how valuable family is until you don’t have them around.”
Being so far from Pennsylvania means she also has to put up with a lot of “harassment” from her husband, a Virginia Tech graduate, when his alma mater has a better football season than Penn State.
“Fortunately,” she said, “that doesn’t happen very often!”
In addition to her work, Murri serves on the Tabb High School band parents’ board. She is a lector and Eucharistic minister at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church and leads a church mission trip to Catholic Heart Work Camp each summer. She and her husband serve breakfast at a local soup kitchen. She has also started compiling her family’s history, though she admits she never gets enough time to work on it.
In the future, she looks forward to crossing several items off of her “bucket list,” including hiking to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park and learning to play the piano.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 30 July 2009 )
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