FAIRBANKS — When Dot Keith was a little girl, she accompanied her grandfather in his Tin Lizzie to construction jobs in Buffalo, N.Y., and helped by passing him tools.

“I was always hanging out with him when I was staying at my grandparents’ home,” Keith said.

The 65-year-old has vivid memories of the sights and smells of her grandfather’s wood shop.

“I’d sit up on his work bench and be given all of the tools to work on wood right along with him. There was no concern about me using a real hammer or saw.”

Keith works as a design and construction project secretary for the borough and has spent much of her professional life behind the scenes of large construction projects, including barracks at Fort Wainwright, dorms and a research building at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and the ski chalet on Birch Hill.

Her favorite project is Denali Elementary School, which was built about five years ago. Keith remembers showing up to the work site one day for a meeting. A huge boiler system was being installed by crane.

“As I looked up at the school, there were about 100 sets of eyes about as big as dinner plates peering out their classroom windows as this maneuver was taking place. It was so neat for them to be able to see this entire project up close and personal.”

This month, a committee of her peers named Keith the Fairbanks North Star Borough Employee of the Month.

Tim Doran, the school’s principal, worked with Keith on the new school building. While Keith’s responsibilities were administrative, she was no wall flower at meetings. She shared her knowledge and her sense of humor. The recognition is well-deserved, Doran said.

“She’s a real team player,” the principal said. “She helped make the whole process come alive.”

Keith was born in Detroit, Mich. Twelve days later, her adoptive parents, a lawyer and a teacher, spirited her by train to Hamburg, N.Y. Keith’s brother, Ron, is five years her junior.

Keith followed in her mother’s footsteps and studied elementary education in college until marrying during her sophomore year. The marriage dissolved, and in 1980 Keith came to Alaska from Pennsylvania with four children, looking to start a new life.

Following a stint as a dental assistant, Kiewit Construction hired Keith in 1984, and she was quickly promoted to office manager.

“It was an instant fit,” she said. “I loved it.”

Keith worked for several other contractors before UAF hired her as projects coordinator and later office administrator for the faculty union.

Keith joined the borough in 2002. Personnel assistant Renee Dick works across the hall from Keith in the municipal administrative building. Dick belongs to the committee that selected Keith employee of the month from a pool of nominees.

“She is always very helpful,” Dick said. “She is always very pleasant. She does a really good job.”

Keith met her husband, Ed, the director of maintenance for Wright Air Service, at the Fairbanks First Church of the Nazarene 22 years ago.

“I was actually taken there on a date by someone else,” she said.

The courtship involved mostly church functions.

“We had one date,” Keith said. “He took me to see (The ‘World Famous’ Lippizzaner Stallions) that year when they performed at the Big Dipper. His proposal for marriage was, I quote, ‘Wanna get hitched?’”

Keith moonlights as a distributor for the Jelly Belly Candy Co. She fell into the job after casually mentioning to a distributor in Homer that it sounded like a neat job for someone in retirement.

A few days later, the Fred Meyer food manager contacted Keith.

“He was desperate for a Jelly Belly vendor,” Keith said. “I had no clue what Jelly Belly was, but now we’ve been serving the two (Fred Meyer) stores for nearly four years.”

Moonlighting is nothing new for Keith. She held a part-time job as a tour guide, driving visitors around in motor coaches, until 2006.

“I have a lot of nervous energy and I like to stay busy,” she said.