The comment was in support of Gary Pedersen's nomination, which was submitted by the chair of chemistry and the director of aquatic and fishery sciences, who've taken turns recruiting Pedersen away from each other in recent years.

Pedersen's financial, analytical and problem-solving skills, combined with his gentle manner with people, made him well qualified to lead chemistry's staff of 50, a position he held from 1987 until 2000

"During this remarkable time, instructional and research programs in chemistry nearly tripled in size. Gary handled the resulting growing pains with efficiency and grace." said Paul Hopkins, chemistry chair.

On his watch, chemistry faculty and staff worked hand in glove with architects, lab consultants and construction crews to design and build the new Chemistry Building."

In 2000, the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences snatched Pedersen from chemistry, according to director David Armstrong. In many respects, he says, Pedersen functioned as co-director, with his advice and involvement sought at all levels of the school and college.

"When Gary started he was immediately confronted with the significant task of compiling data for the self-study report for the school's 10-year academic review. Although new to the department, Gary astounded us all by combing old and archaic data sets to compile the most comprehensive files in our 75-year history on . . . trends and patterns of academic programs that were compelling evidence of significant improvements in the school," Armstrong said.

Professor Tom Quinn, who coined the phrase Jedi Knight Administrator, said an example of just one of Pedersen's accomplishments was his work for the UW's Alaska fish research stations.

"Gary's chemistry background did not prepare him directly for dealing with the very extensive and complicated issues of real estate, safety issues involving bears and boats, and maintenance of these field camps consisting of about two dozen buildings and at least as many boats at a series of distant locations in western Alaska," Quinn says. "He has dealt with the UW Real Estate Office, the local villages and Native corporations in Alaska, the well-diggers, the freight-haulers, the disparate perspectives of faculty involved in the program and the budgetary considerations."

"The best part of my work is the diversity of tasks," says Pedersen, who late last year got recruited back to chemistry. "You handle TA assignments, human resources issues, budget problems, fires and floods, sometimes all in the same day."

In addition to his contributions to the individual departments, Pedersen has made remarkable contributions more broadly at the UW through work on University committees.

"Since the inception of the University Services Renewal project (often referred to as USER) in 1997, Gary has devoted countless hours, outside of his full-time job," says Jeanne Marie Isola, director of the UW Strategic Initiatives Office. "Gary's superior contributions supported the success of the Online Payroll Update System, the Financial Desktop Initiative, the Financial Desktop Reporting Application and the Access to Systems, Tools, Resources and Applications."