Multitasking master

In 1978, computers were beginning to use the 5.25-inch floppy disk, Microsoft Corp. released the BASIC programming language, and Washington University in St. Louis was celebrating its 125th anniversary.

While much has changed in computing and at Washington University in the past 45 years, one thing hasn’t changed — Myrna Harbison’s presence in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering. That year, Harbison joined the small staff in the department, then located in Bryan Hall, as a department secretary. Now the longtime assistant to the chair, she has assisted four department chairs, beginning with the late Jerome Cox, who became the founding chair of Computer Science in 1975.

Computer science has evolved exponentially since the late 1970s, when Harbison and her coworkers used electric typewriters for their work and students processed data by feeding punch cards into a machine, and Harbison has helped shepherd the department through that. She deftly oversaw everything from organizing large conferences to overseeing department moves twice: from Bryan Hall to Jolley Hall in 2016, and into the newly-opened sleek McKelvey Hall in early 2021.

“As Computer Science grew, there was talk of the department moving into a brand new building, but little did we know the benefactor would be one of our own alums, Jim McKelvey, which made the move into this building more meaningful,” Harbison said.

When McKelvey Jr. was an undergraduate, Harbison recalls, enrollment was small enough that she knew most of the students. While the department’s rapid growth makes that more difficult today, she said it has been wonderful to see the increase in students and faculty each year.

“There’s not really a typical day here at WashU, and that’s a good thing,” she said. “It’s like Forrest Gump said, ‘Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.’ It’s one of the most challenging  aspects of working here, but also one of the things that makes it interesting enough to want to keep doing it.” 

For the past 10 years, Harbison has been assistant to Roch Guérin, the Harold B. & Adelaide G. Welge Professor of Computer Science and chair, who said her presence has helped shape the department’s collegial structure that everyone enjoys.

“Besides being the repository for the department's institutional memory, i.e., the go-to person for any question related to processes and traditions in the department, one of her unique qualities has been in making everyone feel that helping them is the most important thing to her,” Guérin said. “No matter how mundane the task, she handles it as if it is the most important thing in the world, and she keeps at it, often above and beyond the call of duty, so that you never have to worry about whether it will get done and be done well. I would not have survived my job as chair were it not for her constant efforts.” 

Besides being the repository for the department's institutional memory, i.e., the go-to person for any question related to processes and traditions in the department, one of her unique qualities has been in making everyone feel that helping them is the most important thing to her … ”

— Roch Guérin
Department Chair, Computer Science & Engineering

Harbison said her longevity at WashU is surprising even to her. Washington University is only the second place Harbison has worked in her adult life, but it has become her home.

“If you had asked me then if I’d still be here 45 years later, I probably would have said, ‘No, are you kidding?’” she said. “But Dean Bobick said recently that universities are continually renewing themselves, which is what I’ve always felt and one of the reasons I’ve been here this long. Every fall we get an influx of new people who bring with them new ideas and challenges, and it’s this change and renewal that can make it possible for staff members to enjoy staying at WashU.” 

Having achieved such a large milestone, Harbison said it’s now time to move on to other things and will retire at the end 2023 with 45 years of great memories.