Even after a four-decade career, Rhonda Maria Graham enjoys her work at UT Southwestern so much she says, I plan on working here another 40 years!

An Accounting Clerk II in the Office of Asset Management, Ms. Graham started her career in 1979 as a File Clerk in the Medical Service Research and Development Plan. Whether she actually becomes UTSW’s first 80-year employee isn’t the point; the fact that Ms. Graham believes she’s serving in the right place at the right time is.

I love the diversity and challenges of the University and its growth, she says. Meeting people of all walks of life is a pleasure, and I treasure the opportunities UT Southwestern has afforded me.

Rhonda Maria Graham

Recipient of a Gold PACT Pin for at least 16 recognitions of excellent customer service, Ms. Graham describes herself as faithful, devoted, genuine, and loyal all bottled up in one person. Co-workers would add that she can be tenacious because she is dedicated to her assigned projects and determined to complete them in a timely manner. Her duties include processing incoming controlled assets and capital equipment through PeopleSoft and reviewing equipment account codes and profile IDs to ensure that the requested purchases meet institutional criteria. Ms. Graham also handles Asset Management timecards and various staff requests.

My position involves one of the administrative duties of the University, she explains. We support UTSW’s three-part mission – to educate, discover, and heal – as well as its values of excellence, innovation, teamwork, and compassion by promoting careful stewardship of its resources.

Ms. Graham, a passionate fan of all sports, enjoys football but has also tried her hand at bowling, pool, tennis, and softball over the years.

Her heartfelt treasures, however, include her daughter, Ra’Nesha Graham, a 35-year-old educator who lives in Humble, Texas, and her 86-year-old mother, Estella Graham. She is the matriarch of our family. I enjoy visiting Ra’Nesha near Houston, eating our favorite seafoods, and going to the casino. But most of my leisure time is spent here in Dallas with my mother. She’s been in my corner for the past 40 years that I’ve been at UT Southwestern, she says.

In 2004, as Ms. Graham was preparing to join the institution’s prestigious Quarter Century Club, she showed her playful side with a shocking April 1 declaration. I told my co-workers I was giving my two-week notice and retiring, she remembers. I soon said ‘April fool!’ but I really tricked them.

Fifteen years later, retirement remains an undetermined eventuality. Those who know Ms. Graham wouldn’t be surprised by her professed potential pivot. Before coming to UT Southwestern I wanted to become a funeral director/mortician, she says. I believe after I retire I will follow my passion of helping families cope with their grief and get back into the funeral home business.