Linda Drummond was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada . She is the second of 7 children, and there was not a lot of money, but her mom made sure all the kids got dance and piano lessons. Linda was an accomplished Highland dancer and parlayed this skill into college money by forming the Linda Bregg School of Dance.
She attended Carleton University, and was the first in her family to go to college. Linda studied mathematics and chemistry. She graduated May 30, 1969, married college sweetheart Doug Drummond the next day, and joined IBM the day after she got back from her honeymoon. Linda had some life plan! She worked for IBM in Ottawa, then took an international assignment in Raleigh while her husband went to NC State for graduate school. This assignment allowed her to travel the world.
When Doug finished his PhD they decided to stay in Raleigh. Doug took a job at RTI while Linda continued to work for IBM in Raleigh. Doug was killed on a business trip 1985, when their two children Christopher and Allison were only 5 and 4 years old. Linda fortunately had a good job and a great support system in Raleigh, so kept working for IBM, and was able to hire a live-in nanny to help with the children. IBM provided her many opportunities to travel and for personal growth and expanded responsibilities.
Somehow during this incredibly busy time, Linda found time to become one of the founders of Soroptimist Raleigh. In 1987, fellow IBMer Shirley Hall came to Linda to talk about chartering Soroptimist. The group they pulled together was incredibly diverse: there were doctors, government officials. nurses, faculty members, a nun, and a number of women from IBM.
Linda was fortunate to find another wonderful man, an IBMer, and she married Joe Bucklen in 1991 and had a wonderful life. He was diagnosed with Vascular Dementia and then Alzheimers but she was able to look after him at home until his death in 2014.
During her 35 year membership with the club, Linda has held several offices including President, Vice President, chaired the Live Your Dream Program, worked on LYD judging, mentored LYD winners, presented Dream it Be modules to Job Start, where she helped women coming out of prison create achievable goals to build a successful future.
Linda spent 30 years with IBM in technical, marketing. sales management and executive positions. She retired early to spend more time with her husband who by then had some health issues.
Other interesting achievements include: hiking the Grand Canyon, skydiving, and bungee jumping while in New Zealand, as well as completing the 40 mile walk for breast cancer before having breast cancer in 2019. Linda stays active playing golf, pickle ball and walking. She loves to spoil her grandchildren and spend time with friends and family at her beach house at Holden Beach NC. She is thankful to have met and formed friendships with the many smart, big hearted, hard working Soroptimist women here who are passionate about the Soroptimist Mission to help women and girls.