Former Eastman intern among Va. Tech victims

By SHARON CASKEY HAYES

Published April 19th, 2007 | 0 Comments

MAXINE TURNER

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A former intern at Eastman Chemical Co. was among those killed Monday at Virginia Tech.

Maxine Turner, 22, was scheduled to graduate next month with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering.

She worked in Eastman's Polymer Process Technology in Kingsport in the summer of 2005 and researched processes for making PETG. Dan Martin was her mentor.

"Maxine had a love of doing engineering work more than many of the students I had ever worked with. She was an excellent student who had a love for life," Martin said.

Susan Harris, senior staffing representative and student programs coordinator for Eastman, said Turner was an outgoing and energetic young woman.

"She was a high academic achiever and a strong leader on campus. She was very well-liked by our other Eastman co-ops and interns," Harris said.

Turner, originally from Vienna, Va., was in Norris Hall on the Virginia Tech campus Monday morning when another student, Cho Seung-Hui, started firing apparently indiscriminantly on anybody and everybody in sight. He killed 30 people in Norris Hall before turning the gun on himself.

Cho is also suspected of killing another student and a resident adviser in a campus dormitory earlier that morning.

James Medlin, who was Turner's supervisor during her internship at Eastman, said she was the principal organizer of the Virginia Tech chapter of the Alpha Omega Epsilon engineering sorority.

She was also the recipient of the Eastman Excellence in Chemical Engineering Scholarship and was selected based on her academic achievements, leadership activities, and good communication skills.

"She was an impressive young woman," Medlin said. "This is sadder than any words can convey."

Eastman spokeswoman Betty Payne said Eastman typically recruits from Virginia Tech and often has interns and co-op students from the university. After Monday's shooting, Eastman staffing personnel contacted its current Virginia Tech students to "to make sure that everyone was OK."

"They found out about Maxine yesterday morning," Payne said.

She said an Eastman staffing representative traveled to Blacksburg on Wednesday to meet with the company's interns and co-op students on campus, "just to touch base with them and see if there is anything we can do to help."

"It's just been a real tragedy," she said.

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