Staffer Honored for 'Proof of Her Dedication'

Marking her 20th year at UT Dallas and more than enough hectic, end-of-year Augusts, Accountant III Diane Graham is retiring and looking forward to leaving the alarm clock turned off.

Graham began her career at UT Dallas as an accounting clerk on January 1st in 1988.

“It’s surprising this day came up so quickly,” Graham said. “We’re going up to Ohio to visit my parents. After that, I want to do a lot of the things I’ve been putting off.”

Graham said she used to do crafts and even bowl some—though she laughed and said her scores were “all over the place.” Work has kept her busy and away from some of her favorite pastimes, and she’s eager to hit the craft stores and bowling lanes as soon as she can.

Graham was honored as her last day approached with a retirement reception that was standing-room-only. Larry Wilson, assistant vice president in Human Resources Management (HRM) and David Maldonado, director of administrative services, lauded Graham’s work ethic across two decades, including service in accounting and payroll positions around campus. Graham worked most recently in HRM.

“Diane’s long service is proof of her dedication to UT Dallas,” Maldonado said. He recalled that when Diane first joined the Payroll Office she helped process more than a year’s worth of payroll data in less than six months. The speedy processing helped UT Dallas become compliant with the newly implemented state-wide payroll reporting system.

“We were working with new programs from Texas Connection and every file we created would come back with new errors,” Maldonado said. “Diane would analyze the errors and explain how we could fix them programmatically. She still does a great job analyzing errors and fixing problems today.”

Wilson added, “Since we became current in our payroll-related reporting, our accuracy has consistently been in the 98-100% range. This is largely due to Diane’s diligence and attention to detail. We will miss her contributions to our payroll team’s success.”

Graham was honored with some gifts of appreciation at her retirement reception, including a gift card to Half Price Books. An avid reader, she’ll enjoy a bit more free time to delve into books as she enters her first October in decades without much to plan but which book to tackle first and how the Graham family will spend the holidays.

She was joined at the reception by her husband Larry, daughter Laura Graham, and son Robert Graham, who serves as a software systems specialist III in Information Security.

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