Dr. JoeAnne P. Bridge

Dr. JoeAnne P. Bridge, 77, passed away at her home on March 4. She is survived by her widower Leo; a daughter, Kendall R. Gaddis of Salem, WV; and a son, Karl, of Albuquerque, NM. She has four grandchildren (Karla G. McMillian, 34 , of Isle of Wight Co., VA; David A. Gaddis, 28, of Salem, WV; Sofia M. Pergola, 13, and Karl G. Pergola, Jr., 10, both of Albuquerque, NM. She also has three great-grandchildren, all of whom reside in Isle of Wight Co., VA: Austin McMillian,13; Kayla McMillian, 8; and Carson McMillian, 6. She is also survived by two brothers, Jesse “Tommy” Pittman (Knoxville, TN) and Jeffrey Pittman, and a sister, Jackie P. Undset, both of Virginia Beach, VA.

Dr. JoeAnne P. Bridge was born in Kenly, NC on February 2, 1939, to Jesse and Ophelia Barnes Pittman. She grew up in Norfolk, VA, where she started her family and graduated from Virginia Wesleyan College, the class of 1972. She went on to obtain her Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Clinical and Community Psychology. She used her education in the field of counseling families for most of her career, beginning with her role as a supervisor in the Fourth Judicial District Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court in Norfolk, VA. From there, she served as a federal family and education counselor at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, DC and Ft. Belvoir in Virginia. While there, she developed the research and protocol to produce a tool, Senior Raters’ Performance Evaluation (SRPE), used by the Army to assess and calibrate various skill sets equivalencies among military and civilian candidates vying for leadership positions within the Army.

Late in the1980’s, Dr. Bridge took the position of Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) counselor in Albuquerque, NM. She was among a small number of ASVAB counselors across the country in the inaugural year of the program. Her fervent advocacy of the program among New Mexico’s high school and college students gained her national recognition in the program’s first National ASVAB Counselor of the Year Award in 1990. She retired from federal service in 1999, then a senior counselor in the U.S. Dept. of Transportation.

Dr. JoeAnne P. Bridge was recognized by the National Reference Institute in its 1988-89 publication Who’s Who Among Human Services Professionals.

A private funeral service will be celebrated at the Holy Ghost Catholic Church in Albuquerque on Saturday, March 12, at 9:30 a.m.