She started at $180 a month, and she was thrilled to get it.
That's how long ago it was.
She couldn't use an electric typewriter. "In high school, we just had the old manual typewriters. We didn't have calculators either."
That's how long ago it was.
Phones with more than one line? She had no idea how that worked.
When a Charleston law office hired her, she didn't think she'd last a day.
"He dictated a contract. I tried to type it on an electric typewriter. I had K's and L's all through it because I was used to resting my fingers on 'home row.' I thought he was going to tell me not to come back."
He said no such thing.
In fact, she lasted 50 years.
On Wednesday, Carolyn Scharf wrapped up half a century with Pauley Curry Sturgeon and Vanderford.
At 67, age is reason enough to hang it up. But that's not why she's retiring. "I need to do something else," she said. "I want to go back to college."
College? At 67?
In 1998, she started working on a Board of Regents bachelor of arts degree at West Virginia State. "I want to finish that degree," she said. "That's been a goal of mine all my life."
Scharf spent most of her time at the law firm as Arden Curry's right hand. "I was a single mother with a 21/2-month-old son. The Currys made me part of their family. I babysat their children. His oldest son was 31/2 when I came to work. Now he's a partner in the firm. So is his daughter. She wasn't even born yet. Their other son is a dentist in St. Louis.
"Retiring will be like the separation of a family."
"I feel like my hand is falling off," Curry said. "She's been around so long, it will be awful with her gone. Her life has been this office and her church. I can't say enough about her."
For 50 years, she remained loyal to the lawyers who took a chance on her. As a fledgling secretary from Nicholas County, she had trouble finding work in Charleston. She graduated from Richwood High School at 16, worked two years in Richwood then started applying for work here.
"There were two openings at Morris Harvey College. My skills were excellent, but they were afraid my young age and the fact that I was unmarried would be a problem with the male students."
The fact that she was unmarried also worried a prominent Charleston lawyer. "He said he wished he could hire me, but he couldn't risk having a single woman in the office with him since he was also single. Things have changed."
In September 1958, after registering with Kelly Girls, she landed an appointment with lawyer K.D. Pauley at 5:30 on a Wednesday. "I started not to go," she said, "because that would be after hours."
Filled with misgivings, she rode the elevator to the eighth floor of the Kanawha Valley Bank Building. "K.D. Pauley interviewed me to work for Arden Curry and Harold Given who were moving in. He let me transcribe his dictation on the old manual typewriter that Frank Litton had in his oil and gas offices that were also located there."
He called later and told her to report to work Saturday morning. "He had clients waiting. I finally got a legible copy from the contract I'd typed on the electric typewriter. Then the phones started ringing with multiple lines. I thought one caller asked for Mr. Litton. I said, 'I'm sorry, but he's out of the office.' He said, 'This is Mr. Litton.' Well, that wasn't so good."
With patient mentoring from seasoned employee Frieda Hall, she gradually learned the ropes. Before long, she handled bookkeeping, payroll and other duties.
She moved with the firm to a new building on Virginia Street in 1968. They asked her to manage the building. In 1988, they moved to their present quarters at 100 Kanawha Blvd. She managed that building until 1994.
Hired originally as a legal secretary or legal assistant, she graduated to paralegal in 1975. "They didn't have paralegals until 1975," she said. "Then the American Bar Association grandfathered in legal secretaries with at least 15 years of experience. They gave each of us a plaque."
As a youngster, she wanted to be a doctor like her grandfather in South Charleston. Later in life, she got a taste of the medical world when she took first aid classes and taught CPR and first aid for the American Red Cross.
A Civil Defense volunteer from 1970 to 1977, she later took EMT classes and rode rescue trucks on nights, weekends and holidays.
In retirement, she wants to write more, paint more and volunteer more at her church, United Disciples of Christ. She also wants to volunteer at Women's and Children's Hospital.
The bashful, inexperienced 18-year-old who struggled with an electric typewriter apparently slipped easily into the world of modern technology. "I get upset now when the computer doesn't do things as fast as I want it to," she said. (Source >>>)
What a very inspiring story and such a remarkable woman. Her story has really struck a chord.
Posted by: Connie Swartz | February 15, 2009 at 12:50 PM
That's a very inspiring story and encouraging for other "grandfathered in" paralegals who have decided to return to school in our "old ages."
Posted by: debjame | February 22, 2009 at 04:00 PM