June 6, 2005

NILL CRUISES TO RETIREMENT

In 1977, Dick Nill boarded his 21-foot boat and set sail for a new life away from Chicago with his wife, Penny, and their three-year-old son, Jeff.

Hoping to escape the Windy City’s chill, Nill and his family ventured down the Mississippi River and eventually landed in the Bayou City and at the University of Houston. Now, 28 years later, Nill is retiring as director of the Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) Program and leaving a place that he calls home.

“This is a great university,” Nill said. “What I will miss the most is the people — the social interaction with my colleagues.”

Nill has worked with staff, administrators and faculty throughout his university career, which started as a senior buyer for the Department of Purchasing.

“As soon as we arrived in Houston, my wife and I went job hunting. UH had a buyer position open, and since I was a buyer for Montgomery Ward, I applied for the job,” he said.

After just a few months at the purchasing department, Nill realized the university was different from the private sector.

“In corporate America, there is competition. There is stress. There is backstabbing. At the university, you’re part of a family, part of a team,” Nill said. “You’re not just working to generate profit, but for the betterment of students. Here, it’s not just doing a job, but doing a good thing.”

For Nill, doing a good thing meant serving UH in various positions, including assistant director of purchasing and director of the purchasing department, the HUB program and university contracting.

His tenure at the university has not only been personally rewarding, but also generally productive.

“I've had the pleasure of working with Dick Nill from the time I arrived at the university. Thankfully, I've come to learn my original impression was the correct one. Dick is one who continually and successfully strives to make the university a better place. In turn, he elevated those around him,” said John Rudley, vice president of administration and finance. “My thanks to him for his 28 years of dedicated service.”

During Nill’s four-year term as the HUB director, the university has raised the percentage of dollars it spends with state-certified minority- and women-owned vendors from 9.78 percent to 19.6 percent. The significant increase is due, in part, to the efforts of Nill and program coordinator Sandra G. Webb.

Now that his work at UH is done, Nill plans to spend time learning foreign languages and traveling to Europe with his wife, but without his sailboat.

Francine Parker
fparker@central.uh.edu