Climb Every Mountain
By LINDA HUDZICK

   Many successful women can look back and marvel at the journey they’ve taken to achieve their goals. The mountains and the valleys traveled all add up to make us the women we are today.
    For Linda Till, president and CEO of PA Office Service Group, Inc., a combination of determination, faith, and hard work has helped her reach the summit of more than one challenging mountain she had to face.
    “I grew up in Denver, Pa., graduating from Cocalico High School,” Till said. “Spending much of my early years in the country, I was very active in athletics, outdoors, and horses.”
    A successful and decorated field hockey player, Till played through her high school and college years, citing her high school coach, Joan Shelley, as having a big impact on her life.
    “Her description of my style of play was ‘nose to the grindstone,’” Till said. It is a style that continues to serve her well today, along with the principles taught by her parents who had a “conservative Christian background,” she said. “They taught me honestly, loyalty, and responsible hard work.”
    Growing up, Till discovered a great love of travel and remembers the first long trip with her family in 1967 when “our family set across the United States in my father’s employer’s new Chrysler to my cousin’s wedding in Demming, N.M.,” she said. “I can remember that long trip and how we crossed on a southern route and returned on a northern route.”
    She chose to stay close to home for her professional education, graduating from the McCann School of Business in Reading, Pa.
    “It landed me at my first professional position working with the director of research, W.M. Krogman, at Lancaster Cleft Palate Clinic. He was an interesting individual as his specialty was forensic medicine as an anthropologist, working in the ’40s with Elliot Ness in Chicago. Dr. Krogman was worldly and brilliant.”
    From there she held various positions, eventually joining Guckes Brothers and Hall as a sales executive,
a position she held from 1982 through 1992.
    The management was not efficiently prepared for the growth that was happening in Central Pennsylvania.
    But Till was prepared, and after experiencing some frustration with business transactions that weren’t handled efficiently, she decided that she could “do this as my own company … I started Pennsylvania Office Service Group in the basement of my own home in Mechanicsburg on Feb. 18, 1992.”
    Because POSG is a small company, Till admits that out of necessity, she has to wear “many hats. Some hats I like better than others; some hats others can do better than me,” she said. “We provide office furniture, demountable walls, cubicles, seating, and specialize in ergonomics in the workplace. Our services office space planning, specification of products, colors and finishes, installation, and follow-up services.”
    Till enjoys interacting with her clients personally, as well as her professional colleagues. She also especially enjoys interacting with her staff.
    “The approach I take with my staff is respect the individual and expect each team member to play like a champion every day … It is my belief that our work is merely a vehicle to produce what we want for our lives. If it is not fun, rewarding, and challenging, move on. Do something else.”
    Has she faced any particular challenges as a woman in business? Yes, sometimes—but she found a way to learn from those situations.
“I have found that being a woman in business is not as fair as most would like to think. I have been involved in organizations where I was the only woman with 16 men. In that arena, it was a man’s world,” she said. “I learned so much and observed actions and words that I would not naturally use or do myself. It is my belief that we take the best and run with that.”
    She does find time to run with her passions as well, keeping a balance between her professional life and her personal life—something that is very important to her.
    “I have been serving the Open Stage Productions as a board member for three years. I enjoy the arts, and the work that this non-profit organization does is fantastic,” Till said. “I also am the head coach for the Mechanicsburg Girls Tennis team, starting my 10th year. The program has been successful, and I absolutely love working with the young ladies as they achieve greatness or, as we say, play like champions every day.”
    She also ran in the Marine Corp Marathon in Washington, D.C., raising money for Cumberland/Perry Domestic Violence Services as a way to give back to those who find themselves the victims of domestic violence, something that, sadly, Till also experienced in her past.
    But as if running a marathon weren’t enough, there was one other little thing she did to raise awareness and financial rewards for that service. She achieved a momentous goal in January 2011 of reaching the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, East Africa.
    “I decided in a fleeting moment in April 2010 after playing a night of tennis with friends that I would join an expedition team to summit Mount Kilimanjaro … Days, weeks, and months after, I was committed to an intense training program of cycling, running, hiking, and balanced, high-energy nutrition. Always being an athlete, I had no fears—kind of—of climbing.”
    Till can clearly recall the day she reached the summit of that 19,340-foot mountain, calling it her “favorite climbing story.”
    “It was the sixth day of climbing. We went to bed in our little 5x7 tent by 7 p.m. as we were to awaken at 11 p.m. to begin the ascent at midnight. We were at an altitude of 15,300 feet, the temperature was 0 degrees, and winds were 10 mph,” she said. “It was a full moon. When we were awakened at 11 p.m., for the first time ever I wondered why I signed up for this, and joked with our guide. Breathing is difficult, walking is difficult, and I get grouchy when I have little sleep.
    “We started our climb at midnight … our small expedition of two climbers, 16 porters, and two guides. It was like a pilgrimage that early morning; yes, climbing to Mecca. Switch-backing up a very steep incline of 4,000 feet, I looked to our east where Mt. Kenya stood at 18,000 feet. I used this as a guide for how high we were.
    “It was bitter cold and I could feel myself bonking, which means low sugar and dizziness. I immediately chugged down a power bar and felt much better … 1 a.m., 2 a.m., 3 a.m. … Emily [Prentice Player, a fellow climber], who was in front of me, looks back and claims, ‘I don’t think I can make this.’ I told her I would carry her on my back at this point; she is not permitted to turn back. Breathing was very difficult.
    “Four o’clock and this was beginning to feel endless. Wouldn’t my bed feel great about now? By 6:30 a.m. the sunrise light began to swarm the horizon. It was unbelievably beautiful. Emily was looking totally ‘out of it’; dazed and confused. Finally we reached the summit by 8:30 a.m. and stayed only 20 minutes—after a six-day climb … It was wonderful. The weather at the top was sunny with a light breeze.”
    Till relates her experiences climbing Kilimanjaro to her experiences in the business world this way: “The economy and business climate in the last couple of years have been tremendously challenging. Stop, go, hold, change strategy, you name it. I use the mountain experience to know that … when we get closer to our goals, sometimes it is the hardest. The summit is so close yet so far away. We are tired, exhausted, but somehow we must muster the strength to get to the top.”
    But Till is quick to stress that although the climb to the top can be long, hard, and lonely, she would encourage any woman to strike out on her own if she has that desire. She just may learn something about herself along the way.
    “I have learned that I am strong, have purpose, and have the perseverance to see things through to the end. But what is the end? There is always another mountain … so just play like a champion, every day, and give it all you’ve got,” Till said.
    “In 1989, when I was 31, my husband died beside me in bed with a massive heart attack, leaving me with our 11-month-old baby girl and 5-year-old son and before I started my own business. I knew that when I started my business I could endure the hardships I may encounter, as nothing could be as bad as losing your soul mate when our lives were just coming together.
    “His spirit has been with me always, as I can hear him say, ‘You can do this, Linny.’”