47 GALE GIVEN HEEDING AwAKE-UP CALL by Dave Wellman he vividly remembers the conversation with her supervisor­ the annual "heart to heart," as she calls it. As well she should. SIt was painful. But it changed her life. It was 1980, and 22-year-old "She's good at keeping Gale Given, her boss said, was not people at ease. She living up to her potential on the job can have a good time at C&P Telephone of West Virginia getting something in Charleston, where she' d been working for about a year. She was accomplished." not giving 120 percent, nor had she set her standards high enough to reach the top. "He told me my standards were high enough to get by, but not high enough to excel," Gale says today. If Don Hall's purpose that day in his office was to motivate Gale, to convince her that she had the talent to achieve at a level that hadn't even crossed her mind, he succeeded. Gale left that meeting with a new outlook-and new, tougher, self-imposed standards. "I wasn 't going to get fired or anything like that. I wasn't slacking. But it did take me a year or so to figure out what I needed to be doing in the real world. After that conversation with my supervisor, I decided I was going to do everything as well as I could." And that's just what she's done. Gale's job title then with C&P was switching engineer. Today, she is state president-the first woman state president-of Verizon West Virginia, Inc. Gale's sudden quest for excellence, spuned by her boss's timely pep talk, changed her approach to employment. And, to life. "It did wake me up ," she says. "That supervisor really did make a difference along the way." PROFIL E S IN PROMINENCE PROFILES IN PROMINENCE 49 Gale was elected state president of Verizon on July 1, 2000, and position for such a large company as Verizon. "It was not in the game appointed as state president of Verizon Kentucky, Inc., on Dec. 15 of plan. It was not a lifelong goal to work for the telephone company," that same year. Before then she was Executive Director in the regulatory Gale says, laughing. "I expected to work two years and then stay home organization for Bell Atlantic-West Virginia, Inc. and have babies-four or five. Things don't always happen the way Gale earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Marshall you think they're going to happen." University in 1979, finishing a hectic 3-year stay with a 3.83 grade She'd enrolled at Marshall, expecting to earn a bachelor's degree point average. Twenty years later, after attending Marshall's Saturday in computer programming, but changed her focus after taking a few Executive MBA Program for about two years, she earned a master's programming courses. She switched majors, and earned her math degree in business administration. In graduate school, she made degree. virtually all A's. "She truly, truly is one of the best students we've ever Gale knew C&P tended to hire people with math or science had in our MBA program," says Dr. Calvin Kent, Dean of Marshall's degrees and then train them to fit its needs. In fact, C&P was Lewis College of Business. interviewing potential candidates on Marshall's campus, "looking for Naturally, she devoted herself to excelling in the classroom, just math majors," she says. Gale interviewed, got hired and "the rest is as she' d done during her undergraduate days. She sought perfection, history. I take on each job trying to do the best I can," Gale says. "I'm and fell just short. "I should have had a 4.0," she says in a suddenly recognized for having skills and determination." competitive tone. "I don't like getting less than an A" After all, A's Long before Gale worried about access lines or long distance came almost naturally to the former Gale Adkins, who graduated about fees or anything to do with telecommunications, she tossed and turned lO'h or ll'h in the 1976 class of some 300 students at Point Pleasant at night fretting over something even bigger-in an 8-year-old's mind, High School in Mason County. anyway-than life. "My mom and dad always expected me to do well," Gale says. "I The Mothman! didn't (have to) work very hard in high school. I started a strong work The mere mention lately of Gale's hometown of Point Pleasant ethic in college." She was born in Charleston, West Virginia, but her often leads to a conversation about The Mothman Prophecies, a movie family moved to New Haven, West Virginia, when she was about 14 released this past winter. The film is based upon the 1975 book of the months old. Six months later, they moved to nearby Point Pleasant. same title by John A. Keel, who investigated UFO reports of winged She describes her family as "blue collar. We were raised to work hard," creatures around Point Pleasant over the course of 13 months in 1966 she says. and 1967. Still, it took a motivational nudge from her boss at C&P to Gale remembers being in the third grade when the alleged persuade Gale that the road to the top of the corporate ladder is paved Mothman sightings were taking place. "It was not a fun time," she through a work ethic that requires going above and beyond the call of says. Especially for a child. duty not once in a while, but all the time. Now, she makes it mandatory "Basically, we were all very frightened, all the little kids in town," to give her all-and more-from day to day in everything she does. Gale says. For instance, when talking about her role as state president ofVerizon, Frightened might be a bit of an understatement. Gale says her first goal is "to master this job. I want to do this in an "We were absolutely terrified!" she says. optimum way." It didn't help, Gale remembers, that Randy Wedge, one of her During her undergraduate days at Marshall, Gale believed she'd classmates at Ordnance Elementary, began spreading tales during recess be successful in life, but never thought about holding such a high one day about how his father and uncle had gone to the area of the sightings and attempted to shoot the creature with rifles. so PROFILES IN PROMINENCE PROFILES IN PROMINENCE 51 " Randy Wedge told us when they shot, the bullets bounced off of "I got to New York the night of September 10. I'd visited it," she says. Starbucks, caught a cab to the meeting and called my husband. I told Did the men run? Of course not. him, 'It's really fun to be in New York again,' " she recalls. She and "He said they threw hand grenades at the Mothman, and the her husband, Joe-also a Marshall graduate-had spent time in New Mothman caught them and threw them back," Gale says. York during a three-year stay with Bell Communications Research in Frightening, indeed! neighboring New Jersey in the late 1980's. Soon after word spread of the youngster's stories, the school A great day to be alive instantly turned nightmarish. "About three principal confronted him and challenged him to tell the truth. It wasn't minutes after talking to Joe the first plane hit," Gale says. Without a long until he stood before Gale's class, head hanging down, eyes tall building blocking her view, Gale could clearly see the trade center focused on the floor in front of him, and without looking up admitted, from a conference room. "I lied." When she first heard that a plane had hit the building, she walked "We were quite relieved," Gale says. to the window to have a look. Gale thought she'd see a "little Cessna" Still, more Mothman rumors surfaced when the Silver Bridge, hanging out a window of one of the towers. What she saw was an eyebar suspension bridge which crossed the Ohio River between horrifying. Middlepmt, Ohio, and Point Pleasant, collapsed at rush hour on Dec. "The hole looked as big as a football field. It was absolutely 15, 1967, killing 46 people. The bridge was a major east-west link for enormous and right in the middle. I knew it wasn't an accident." West Virginia 35 connecting Charleston, West Virginia, and major cities She thought about leaving the building, even commenting out in Ohio. It was named the Silver Bridge because it was the first and loud, "Maybe we ought to get out ofhere." She paused, her eyes glued only bridge in the area painted with aluminum paint. to the burning building. Then, without warning, more terror. The Mothman sightings reportedly ended after the tragedy. "Suddenly the second plane hit," Gale says. "It was an absolute "The movie was a little creepy," Gale says, "with all the references shock. It was the most evil thing I've ever seen." to the bridge falling. It was hard to watch, considering that my mother She began to wonder if her life was in danger. She wondered missed being on the bridge by only minutes. It was hours after the silently, "How many more planes are coming?" Knowing the Empire collapse before we knew she was alive." State Building w~s just a block or two away, she wondered if it might So, Gale encountered her share of trauma as a child, with the be the next target.