Joy Haystead

A native of Hood River, Oregon, Joy Haystead moved to Portland after graduating from high school in 1961. She married in 1965, and, two years later, moved to Southern California, where she lived until she retired.

In October 1975, Pankow hired her as a subcontract administrator. Haystead had recently divorced and was looking to work for a new firm, and possibly to move away from the secretarial work that she had done since high school. She had spent the previous five years working for Executone, a leading producer of intercom systems and paging devices.

Her responsibilities included typing subcontracts and owner contracts; ensuring that insurance certificates and contractor bonds were completed; and, when the company bid work, assisting Dean E. Stephan and others who put together bids.

From her first day on the job, she worked with Stephan. Haystead became his secretary when he moved into executive management, first as the head of Pankow Construction Company, a subsidiary, and then as president of Charles Pankow Builders, Ltd. When Charlie Pankow's secretary retired, she started working for him, too, and did so until he died, in January 2004.

Eventually Haystead became a corporate administrative assistant. In that role, she performed many duties. In addition to acting as secretary for executive managers, as needed, she took minutes for meetings of the development and recruiting committees and the company's board of directors; coordinated travel for both Southern California region personnel and recruits; typed offer letters; updated and distributed the Crisis Management Plan; administered company-wide vendor accounts; processed payables for corporate accounts; administered contractor licenses, service awards, and the unit holder program (a form of employee stock ownership); helped to arrange the annual meeting and other events; performed quarterly reviews of bonds with Federal Insurance; and maintained project histories.

In the wake of Charlie Pankow's death, the corporate office moved from Altadena to Pasadena. She remained with the company another two years, retiring in 2006. She returned to Oregon and lives in Mosier, a small city in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, some 65 miles east of Portland.