Paul Ness remembers what Ames was

like when he first started working at the Ames Laboratory.

It was the Cold War era, troops were

in Vietnam and Kennedy was president. Hilton Coliseum and Jack

Trice Stadium were cornfields, there was no College of Design

Building, no Gilman and no Meat Lab. The Armory was used for pickup

games of basketball, and the Ames Laboratory had guard shacks and

security when a 22-year-old Paul Ness began his work as a research

technician for the Ames Laboratory in 1960.

Ness has worked the same job ever

since. After 51 years at the Ames Laboratory, Ness will retire on

Jan. 4. Married for more than 50 years, father of four and

grandfather of eight, Ness has worked daily to make sure students

have everything they need to conduct research in the labs, and if

they were missing something, he would make it.

“We’re going to miss him, he is the

life of the party here,”  said his successor and friend, Marc

McGinn. “He should get all of the credit because he has helped

since the beginning.”

In 1967, Ness and his former

co-worker Mike Sandholm measured out the plans for Zaffarano Hall,

which was built by 1968. Zaffarano Hall is home to parts of the

Ames Laboratory and Ness’ current office, which after 40 years is

less than 80 feet from his original office in Physics Hall. They

were also responsible for the extensive helium recovery system that

works to bring back helium from several buildings to reduce costs

for the lab.

But Ness’ favorite part of his job

has been the breaks in the coffee room with his co-workers.

“This is where all the fun was, it

got pretty loud in here some days with a big crowd, and we made a

commitment of not talking about work in here, 15 minutes without

it,” Ness said while standing in the small break room that was

covered entirely in sun-faded newspaper articles from the last 40

years.

A few mismatched chairs, retirement

party posters, inside jokes and a bowl for making liquid nitrogen

ice cream decorate the small space.

After working for more than a

half-century in Ames, Ness has watched the campus go through many

changes and has enjoyed getting to meet and work with leaders,

faculty and students in the labs.

“There have been some days where it

was tough to come in, but after a coffee break most of the problems

had eased themselves, and by the time I went home, I was happy that

I had gone to work that day,” Ness said.

When Ness retires, he plans to

travel to places in the United States where he has never been

before, but he also wants to work on projects in his Story City

home. Retiring will not keep him away from the quaint and colorful

break room he is leaving behind though, he said.

“I’ll continue to come in and chat

with the guys, you can’t leave permanently after making friends

like I have for the last 50 years,” Ness said.

Ness has served thousands of

students and scientists in his time at the Ames Laboratory and will

be missed.

“We’re ready, but he certainly will

be hard to replace,” said co-worker Keith Schulke.