Teddy Morse—who is now growing in a replanted career, working from home with her husband in their family business, MorseComm, selling satellite communications equipment—recently retired after 25 years with the Santa Clara Valley Water District as the public information officer.

"Teddy had this motto that she lived by, 'Bloom where you are planted,'" says Mike DiMarco, public information coordinator for the water district. "It is just so illustrative of her philosophy."

"It feels strange not being there," Morse says about the district. "But I was ready for a change."

Her office is now down the hall from her husband's in the home they have shared since they moved to Almaden Valley from Southern California, where she was born and raised. Morse started working for the district in 1979 as a general services assistant, but it wasn't long before Morse had planted her roots at the district and was beginning her growth.

The public information office started as a one-person operation until Morse came along to help out. After a couple years, when that person left the district, Morse says she was left behind as a one-person staff, "flying at the seat of my pants."

"She ran that office way back," says Sig Sanchez, board member of the district. "We only had one person running that office, and she took over and for a long time did that all by herself. We are going to miss her. She's been an excellent employee."

She ran the office and played the role, but was not officially given the position of public information officer for a couple of years.

"I felt good about it," Morse says about earning the title. "I knew I had competed for the role along with professionals from outside the district."

A drought had hit the area, but the days were far from dry for Morse, as she found herself dealing with the media on an almost daily basis, and returning calls as late as 9 p.m. to people in the community who had called during the day, because she didn't want them to think the district didn't care.

"She became a well-known personality, if you will," says Jennifer Persike, director of communications and outreach for the Association of California Water Agencies.

The statewide group represents 450 water agencies and has been around since 1910. Persike said Morse was active on the communications committee at ACWA for a couple of decades.

"She played a leadership role in the early '90s during the drought," Persike said. "She's been a great contributor. She is an excellent communications professional."

Believing that providing the public with information during extreme conditions such as drought or floods wasn't enough, Morse branched out her duties.

"She started a fantastic school program and started the public outreach program," says Walter Wadlow, chief operations officer. "Teddy really leaves a legacy at the district. In large part, she is responsible for the feel of the district."

It was a role in which she was a natural and of which she is most proud.

"I loved talking about the district," Morse says. "When I would interact and talk with the community directly, that was the best part of the job."

When she wasn't representing the water district, she still couldn't get far from interacting with the community. While raising two athletic, active girls—Tara, now 32, and Tricia, now 29—Morse also coached her daughters' soccer and softball teams and assisted coaching the girls' Little League and basketball teams. She says she liked working with the younger kids—some of whom she said were not at all athletic—because they were just out there to have fun.

Though exercise is an important part of her daily routine, she says she is not athletic herself and gave up playing golf when she was out-driven on a green by her then-8-year-old daughter.

Morse says she was driven to leave her team at the water district with the means to carry on without her. She had announced her retirement at a surprise birthday party held for her last December.

"The way she prepared us was on an almost-subliminal level," DiMarco says. "She was handing us more and more, and stepping away. Her biggest concern was she wanted to make sure we would be able to carry on without her."

It's a mark of her managerial style and character.

"Words that come to mind [about Teddy] are first and foremost, professional, really competent, and a person who really cares about the services the water district provides," Wadlow says. "Regardless of which you are talking about, Teddy was thoroughly committed to what she did."

"You can tell I'm a Teddy fan."