# DLA welcomes six new Hall of Fame members

/ Published June 28, 2019
Fort Belvoir, Virginia, 
Defense Logistics Agency Director Army Lt. Gen. Darrell Williams inducted six new “game changers” into the agency’s Hall of Fame in a June 26 ceremony at the McNamara Headquarters Complex. 

New inductees were honored for their contributions to DLA before an audience of current and former DLA senior leaders, previous DLA Hall of Fame inductees and family members. They are: 
      - Lora Conrad 
      - Navy Vice Adm. Mark Harnitchek 
      - Army Maj. Gen. Michael Lally III 
      - Dorothy Jean Lohr 
      - Patrick McCormick 
      - Sharon Murphy 

The inductees bring the total number DLA Hall of Fame members to 117 and their collective service to DLA equals 2,555 years. 

The director introduced Conrad as having many achievements during her 33-year career. Conrad led initiatives that modernized DLA’s processes and drove efficiencies through innovative technology. 

Conrad acknowledged that although she retired from federal service in 2014, she still recognized many faces in the audience. She thanked those who encouraged her to move from an entry-level secretary position to her ultimate job as senior information technology program manager. 

Williams said it was a special honor for him to welcome Harnitchek, a former DLA director, into the Hall of Fame. Harnitchek served as the agency’s director from 2011-2014. He enabled DLA to play a key role in the responsible drawdown of equipment in Iraq and surge/sustainment operations in Afghanistan, as well as humanitarian assistance and disaster response missions.

Harnitchek said that of all his military assignments, DLA was the best. 

“The DLA crew is a rock-solid, no fanfare, make-it-look-easy group of logistics professionals. It was a thrill to watch the show that you all put on,” he said. “If I have one feeling, it is an overwhelming sense of pride leavened with a very healthy dose of humility.”

Williams described Lally as a revolutionary thinker and a transformative leader who brought continual victories to the Nation’s warfighters, to DLA and to the Department of Defense. As DLA Distribution commander from 2004-2006, Lally established four critical distribution centers to support forward-deployed warfighters. After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, he stood up an expeditionary team that paved the way for the success of DLA’s current support teams. 

Lally said one of the keys to his success was working with great people like Williams, Harnitchek, fellow inductee Patrick McCormick and others. 

“I worked with men and women who made things happen,” Lally said. “We took awesome strategic capabilities and made noticeable impact at the tactical level and the point of need.”

Of Lohr, Williams said she was one of DLA’s foremost experts in federal, DoD and DLA acquisition policy who forged the way for acquisition reform. As a procurement analyst heralded as DLA Aviation’s “Wizard of Policy,” Lohr was integral in DLA's transition to fully automated acquisition. Along the way, she mentored and trained innumerable analysts.

Lohr thanked her colleagues, who she considers family members, and all those who supported her throughout her 45-year career, including her husband.

She said the many World War II and Vietnam veterans she worked with reinforced her first lesson in federal service: “Give your best; the troops depend on us.” 

“Today, I thank them for their guidance as I thank you for this honor,” she said.

Williams lauded McCormick’s accomplishments, saying he was the consummate professional. McCormick rose from warehouse worker to DLA Distribution Operations director leading 25 distribution centers and helped establish the organization’s mapping mission and first distribution center outside the continental United States.

McCormick said it was a challenge incorporating “too many good things and too many wonderful people” into his speech.

“I’m especially proud of the distribution family. They are of course a huge reason of why I’m standing here now and I hope they all know the depth of my respect and admiration of what they have done and continue to do,” he said, extending his thanks to his wife and children.

Synopsizing Murphy’s 28 years with DLA, Williams called her an integral part of DLA Energy's transition from a petroleum¬ based to an energy-based organization and said her impact on the agency was huge. Murphy’s 31-year career culminated in the expansion of DLA-Energy’s non petroleum energy programs and she received multiple accolades for her acquisition acumen and innovative solutions for warfighter needs.

Murphy talked about her transition from her first federal position in 1982 at the U.S. Army Korea Contracting Agency to a contract administrator at what was then the Defense Fuel Supply Center, and ultimately as director of the Aerospace Energy, Supplier Operations Directorate. 

“When you spend 28 years at a place you love, working with people you love and respect and go home every day knowing that you supported the warfighter and civilian agencies and made a true difference — for that I am very proud, very humbled and very honored to be standing here,” Murphy said. 

More information on the DLA Hall of Fame members can be read in the online Hall of Fame page.