Past
Recipients 
2002
- Chris Lundin:
Lundin packs in the hours,
never says no
Scarcely two weeks
after Chris Lundin moved his office from one building to another near
Jordan Quad, his new space had the feel of an extremely small, well-furnished
studio apartment.
Framed photographs
and art covered the walls, and a yards-long vine, from one of several
well-tended plants, meandered along the top of a wooden bookcase. A
stereo stood against one wall and a tabletop fountain gurgled in a corner.
"I like to settle
in and get things done," explains Lundin, technical operations supervisor
for Information Technology Systems and Services (ITSS). "Work is a huge
amount of my life, so I like it to be nice."
Lundin's ability
to create a pleasant environment extends far beyond his oasis-like office.
Lundin's 17 years at Stanford have been spent in customer support for
ITSS -- an area where stress and even chaos are part of the job description.
Lundin's steady, positive and "totally supportive" demeanor inspires
confidence in both co-workers and clients, said the colleagues who nominated
him for an Amy Blue Award.
From the loss of
the network in an entire building to vanished Webmail, "there can be
some pretty crummy situations," said Ben Patterson, a computing systems
information analyst for the technical services team. Aside from being
an always reliable source of technical information, "Chris never panics
-- he always has a good attitude, no matter how bad it gets." In fact,
Lundin's personal style is so encouraging and uplifting, Patterson leaves
every encounter with Lundin feeling good, he said. "You come away feeling
like you're doing your job."
A prodigious worker,
Lundin keeps a laptop computer in the bedroom of his Palo Alto home
and starts reading and sending e-mail soon after he rises at 4:30 a.m.
(His inbox sometimes holds 3,000 messages.) In the office, Lundin is
known for his readiness to tackle problems and his willingness to assist
whenever he's asked, no matter who is doing the asking. In more than
a decade of working together, "I can't recall him saying no, " said
Tom Goodrich, manager of the technical support team in Academic Technology
and Consulting. "He's told me he figures [people] wouldn't ask if they
didn't need the help, and so he finds a way to help."
Despite Lundin's
expertise, "I don't really consider myself technical," said the one-time
psychology major. "I'm more interested in people and how technology
helps them get their jobs done," he said.
Lundin, who switched
his major and earned a business degree from Notre Dame de Namur University
in Belmont, worked as a contract manager for Southern Pacific Transportation
Co. in San Francisco before joining ITSS as a financial analyst in 1985.
At Stanford, the computer revolution already was surging ahead. Twenty
employees shared one computer at Southern Pacific, he said. "Here everyone
had their own."
Lundin moved into
computer customer support in 1989, in time to help roll out the Prism
applications. Over the years, Lundin has managed a core group of employees
who have worked together under a long string of different acronyms.
Simply put, Lundin has been the glue that's held the ITSS customer support
group together.
"He's the best manager
of people I've ever known," said Jay Stamps, a member of the technical
support group. "He leads by setting an example we all strain to follow.
A lot of his work is behind the scenes and many, many Stanford people
have benefited from his assistance without ever knowing they have."
"When I get started
doing things, I have a hard time stopping," said Lundin, who sometimes
caps off 14-hour work days by playing softball with the ITSS team --
the "Great Bauds" -- or with meetings of the Peninsula Interfaith Action
to work on local housing issues. The father of three daughters, Lundin
has been married for 28 years, has played piano at his church for 25
years and for the last two decades has played rock 'n' roll with his
buddies in the "All Name No Stars" band.
"This job is never,
ever done, and it takes a certain kind of person to be willing to put
up with that," he said. "You have to say to yourself, 'I've worked as
hard as I can today and I'll come back tomorrow and work as hard as
I can again.' And we'll get through it."
