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Today's Featured Biography

Deb Kilmartin

Deborah E. Kilmartin was born in Darby, PA located near the Philadelphia International Airport. A local girl, Deb grew up, went to school, and currently lives less than 2 miles from the place she was born. She graduated from Sharon Hill High School (now Academy Park) in 1973, Delaware County Community College in 1975 with an associate's degree in Natural Science with a chemistry major and a French minor. She took a year and a half break from college to earn enough money to continue and then attended West Chester State College (now West Chester University). She was active in the biology club (Darlington Biological Society) and the chemistry club (Alchemists' Club) there as well as working various jobs, including work-study with the biology department and as a packer at Bullen Chemical Company packaging soaps, waxes, and detergents while taking a full course load. Deb unknowingly began her career in Environmental Chemistry during her senior year by interning at the local health department testing well water. Her plan to continue her education and working in a health field was derailed when her mother was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. Deb completed her internship in June and went back to the chemical factory to work. When a laboratory technician position became available at the local sewage authority, DELCORA, she interviewed for it and was hired. She found she had the job on the same day she was told her mother was untreatable. Her mother passed away in November 1979. She took plant operator's training but was unable to become licensed because she "only worked in the laboratory." Deb left DELCORA for a position as the plant chemist for Chem-Clear, Inc., a hazardous waste pretreatment facility under RCRA for about four and a half years. She then worked for AGES laboratories as a chemist for about two years. These last two companies went out of business after she left them. Deb worked for Drexel University for about a year as a laboratory technician while pursuing a graduate degree in environmental chemistry, and then for about a year as a research technician doing atmospheric research in Hawaii and Colorado with Drs. Alan Bandy and Donald Thornton. This is where her travel adventures began. It was here that she shared a condo with a graduate student and a snake that dropped in one weekend. Deb and the other researchers flew over Four Points and Lake Powell in Southwestern US and the erupting volcano in Hawaii, which is spectacular at night. They worked out of a NOAA station and toured the "scientists only" areas of the volcano observatory in Hawaii. She then transferred to the Health and Safety Department of Drexel and received her certification as a Hazardous Materials Manager (CHMM) in 1989. From there, Deborah worked as a chemist for a contractor to EPA's Superfund Program, called Halliburton NUS, which became Brown and Root Environmental, then Brown and Root Environmental Company, and a few other names and now is called TetraTech NUS. The office developed a mobile laboratory, and now she really began to travel, first locally in EPA's Region III (PA, DE, WV, VA, and DC) and later around the country doing field chemistry. This was the work she loved best, with all sorts of adventures, including more snakes, getting shot at once and threatened several times on several military bases, working out of a trailer during hurricanes, and naked men. It was during this time that she threatened to write her (probable) best seller (if titles sell it), called "Snakes I Have Known and Other Naked Men Stories" based on these adventures. She was alsp working on a mystery novel called, "Environmental Impact." After years of technical writing, Deb's only problem is figuring out why someone would want to kill another person when punching him or her in the nose is usually enough to reduce stress. Deb left that company to take a temporary position at the Philadelphia office of the US Army Corps of Engineers, followed by a position at Environmental Standards, Inc. Deborah left that company due to health problems and graduated to a career of chemistry consulting for former companies. She was hired by GeoTrans, Inc. in 2001 part-time and then by the Malvern Retreat House as a sacristan in 2005, also part-time. She volunteered for the Philadelphia Section doing "Chemist in the Classroom" and the monthly program at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children. Because she enjoyed making PVA slime with children, her family and kids all over often call her "Auntie Slime." She volunteered for RSVP doing environmental talks and programs, National Ovarian Cancer Coalition (NOCC), the Philadelphia Carcinoid Cancer Support Group, and others. She enjoyed sleeping, reading, more sleeping, doing chemical presentations and chemical consulting, stained glass, and sewing, pretty much in that order...

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