Brian Bradley
WC Monitor
11/13/2015
Paducah/Portsmouth Project Office (PPPO) Manager William Murphie will retire on Dec. 3 after 35 years of working for the Energy Department, according to an email sent to PPPO employees on Thursday. PPPO Deputy Manager Robert Edwards will then serve as acting PPPO manager. “This decision has been a difficult one, but the timing is right,” Murphie wrote in the email. “My last 12 years as the Manager of PPPO have been the best of times for me and I am so appreciative of everyone’s support in achieving all this Office has accomplished in such a short time and with such a small staff.” Murphie started with DOE in 1980 as an engineer and project manager, was part of the original DOE Office of Environmental Management staff when the branch was created in 1989, and helped establish the former Ohio Field Office and current PPPO.
Murphie was instrumental in many changes at the PPPO, including construction and startup of DOE’s two depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion plants, and returning the Portsmouth and Paducah gaseous diffusion plants from the United States Enrichment Corp. to DOE for decommissioning. “It has been my greatest pleasure to serve with each of you and I am proud to have been a part of the significant changes and progress we have made together here at PPPO,” Murphie wrote. “My best memories will be of my close relationships with those of you with whom I have worked so closely for many years.”
