Scott Swanson
Nancy Adcock wasn’t really sure what was next when she left Sweet Home High School in 1996 and headed for Oregon State University.
A star basketball player at Sweet Home, she’d gotten interested in engineering after meeting her older sister’s boyfriend, who worked at Hewlett-Packard and let her job shadow with him during her senior year. That, and encouragement from science teacher Cheryll Munts prompted her to give engineering a try.
“Between Mrs. Munts and my sister, I went into it,” she said.
Her decision paid off over the years, most recently when Adcock, now 33, was named the Boeing Corp.’s 777 Engineer of the Year for 2011.
“It was a pretty big honor to receive that kind of award,” said Adcock, who’s been with Boeing for 11 years. “They only give it to one person every year. It seemed like, from what I could tell, most of the folks who were up for nomination had been in the company a lot longer than I had – 20 or 30 years. It was a pretty big surprise to follow in the shoes of the person who got it last year.”
Adcock is the daughter of Butch and Polly Adcock of Sequim, Wash., formerly of Sweet Home.
She was a cross-country runner and basketball player in high school, earning all-conference MVP honors as a senior on the hardcourt. At OSU she walked on and played two years, earning a scholarship with the Beavers as a guard.
“After that, engineering school got pretty busy and I ended up switching gears, getting more into the engineering side of things,” she said.
She said she appreciates what her high school experience did for her, back in the days when “Mr. (Dan) Tow was single.”
“Sweet Home High School didn’t have all those opportunities for specialized classes, but one thing they did have was excellent teachers in math, English and the sciences,” she said. “I think that really helped me in my transition to Oregon State. I had a solid basis in math, science and English.”
Her first big break came when she got a job in the mechanical engineering shop at OSU, where she learned from shop manager Steve Adams about machining and metal shop equipment.
That gave her plenty of exposure to the professors in the Engineering Department, for whom she did some projects.
“It was a huge blessing to get that opportunity to work down there,” Adcock said. “I didn’t know about machining and milling machines, lathes and welding. I hadn’t gotten into that stuff in Sweet Home. I was too busy with chemistry and mathematics.”
She was named one of two 1998-99 Outstanding Student Employee awards from the department and then got involved in the Multiple Engineering Cooperative Program, which is what led her to Boeing.
“When you get into that program, you are guaranteed two six-month internships with companies in Oregon or Boeing in Washington,” she said.
Adcock got chosen to go to Boeing and interned with the 777 Fuselage Fleet Support Focal group, for which she works today. She credits and “awesome mentor who really taught me a lot.
“I think one of the reasons I got the (Engineer of the Year) award is because of him,” she said.
She later worked at Freightliner in Portland, but as she neared graduation at OSU, Boeing called.
“They asked if I wanted to come back. I did.”
The Boeing 777 is the world’s largest twin jet airliner, with more than 1,000 flying for airlines around the world since it was first produced in 1995. One model of the plane holds the world record for distance flown by a commercial jetliner without refueling – halfway around the world.
Adcock is a leader on a team that performs customer service-type activities for airlines who experience problems with their jetliner fuselages.
Typically, she said, her team is called upon when damage to the aft (rear) portion of planes’ fuselages – the body of the plane – occurs, usually while parked on the runway.
“One thing Boeing takes pride in is having a great service department,” she said. “If they tear the skin on the plane, the airline will take photos and describe the damage, then Boeing’s Service Department decides who’s responsible for fixing it. The next step is for Adcock’s crew to figure out how.
“We put together a repair and repair instructions, then we have to do an analysis to make sure the repari is going to work and put the airplane back in the condition it was before the accident happened.
“In general, we cover all the analysis for the fuselage structure,” she said.
That analysis is a big part of her job, she said. Her team also analyzes drawings in the factory for projects under development and it handles the movement of planes under construction – and repairs for any mishaps that occur on the factory floor as airliners are constructed.
“There’s a lot of lifting and moving when we’re building a plane,” she said. “There is damage and safety issues with people under (a plane under construction). Sometimes when it’s rolling through the factory, a little bit of damage occurs there too.”
She said most of her work is done in Everett, Wash., though she occasionally travels overseas to do testing or take care of customers.
It was partly her performance on one of those overseas assignments that resulted in her award, said her manager, Richard Gessner.
He said the award is given to an “outstanding engineer” within the 777 program who has made “a significant contribution to Boeing and to the program.”
Between Adcock’s arrival as an intern and her time as a Boeing, Gessner said, she’s put in “a considerable amount of time” in the program.
“She’s shown the ability to lead and to mentor new employees,” he said. “As one of her activities, she was sent overseas to take care of a customer’s needs. The complexity of what she had to do and the fact that she did it under adverse weather conditions – snow and other things – and her dedication, combined with what she’s done for Boeing in Puget Sound, were the criteria for which we nominated her for the award.”
Gessner said he sees the same traits Adcock demonstrated in earning a scholarship as a walk-on at OSU and then excelling in engineering.
“It’s the same personality traits,” he said. “Get in there, get it done, figure out a way. She’s extremely modest. She’s not into the bling, or into the “look what I’ve got.
“She’s the real deal, according to us. She doesn’t have to talk herself up.”
When she’s not on the job, Adcock has been busy remodeling her 1920s home in the Seattle area.
“I did it pretty much by myself,” she said, shortly after finishing sanding her kitchen cupboards. “I had friends and family help me a little bit – or a lot on some things, like reroofing my roof. My brother-in-law and my dad helped me with that.”
She also still competes in athletics, including a recent triathlon in Sunriver.
“I don’t play basketball much any more,” she said. “I don’t have time.”
She also earned a master of science degree from the University of Washington in 2009.
Adcock also is involved at her church, where she volunteers with the youth.
She said if she could give any tips to current Sweet Home students, it would be to “pursue engineering.
“Even if you think you’re not the best at mathematics, if you put in the hard work, it’s doable,” she said.