One dedicated employee

July 03--For 60 years, Andover'sOlga Sarkisian has reported for work in the accounting department at The Andover Companies.

Yes -- 60 years, working the same job handling insurance payments at the same company. It's a feat that is basically unheard of in business today.

Sarkisian herself knows that. But she simply says she worked for a nice company and she never had a reason to leave. So, she stayed.

"The drive has no highway, the company is good to me and the people are nice. Why would I leave?" she said.

But after six decades, even Sarkisian knows when it's time to call it quits.

Last Friday, the 78-year-old finally joined the world of the retiree.

Instead of embarking on her five-minute daily commute, she is now planning an international adventure -- a trip to visit relatives in Greece and Cypress this summer.

It was the spring of 1954 when Sarkisian, who has lived in west Andover, on Chandler Road, all her life, first began her relationship with The Andover Companies in Andover.

She was a senior taking business courses at the former Punchard High School in Andover. A teacher recommended her for a filing job at The Andover Companies and she started working after school and on Saturday mornings.

The day following her high school graduation in June 1954, she was hired full time in the accounting department and remained there ever since.

She moved three times with the company over the course of the 60 years, from an office on North Main Street to what she calls "the triangle building" in Shawsheen Square, which now houses Andover Hockey Shop.

The company, which has been selling insurance from its Andover home office for over 100 years, finally moved to its current location at 95 Old River Road in 1989, and Sarkisian went along, too.

With over 400 sick days accumulated, she has rarely missed a day of work in 60 years.

Over the decades, she learned to adjust to office changes, like new computers and online insurance payments. There was no such thing as voice mail or e-mail in her early work days and copies of letters back then were made using carbon paper. She said she just went with the flow.

"I tackled changes the way I tackle the things that come up in life. You just do it," she said.

Bob Keefe, her supervisor in the accounting department for the past 38 years, said Sarkisian was always reliable and had a great work ethic.

"She was so personal ... her customer service was great in an age when business can be so impersonal," Keefe said. "Like, we would get a check and it was Olga who called and figured out where the check came from ... just a great employee."

Denise Meisner, a billing department supervisor, said longtime employees are somewhat common at Andover Companies, which has 200 employees.

"We have a few with 50 years, but not 60, except Olga," said Meisner, who has worked at the company herself for 33 years. "Olga was the first employee to hit 60 years."

Sarkisian never married and lives in the same home on Chandler Road where she was raised. Her brother, Sarkis Sarkisian, who runs the driving range, ice cream business and nursery known as Sarkisian Farm, lives next door with his family. She lived with and cared for their mother, Satenig Sarkisian, until she passed away in July 2008.

Off the job, her passion has been her faith. She's a founding member of St. Gregory Armenian Apostolic Church in North Andover, where she's maintained the books ever since the church's inception in 1970. Her bookkeeping is precise, Keefe noted, so one would be hard-pressed to find one penny off balance.

Some 160 guests attended Sarkisian's retirement party last month at DiBurro's in Bradford, while co-workers saluted her last Friday and presented her with a company-inscribed chair.

The raves from office colleagues were plentiful as, clearly, she will be missed.

"Overall, it's been a wonderful career with a wonderful company," she told the crowd.

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