Manager’s Family Tree Full of Exchange Branches

When you work at the Exchange, the word ‘family’ takes on a whole new meaning.

-Margie Daniel

Margie Daniel’s family tree is loaded with present and former Exchange associates dating back to 1966. In fact, the three generations’ combined 125 years of experience is four more years than post exchanges have been around.

Daniel began her career as a temporary administrative services clerk at Fort Carson, Colo. Her circuitous route included stops at installations throughout Colorado to Germany’s Frankfurt Exchange, finally winding up at Robins AFB in 1999. Now a services business manager, she is celebrating her 40th year with the Exchange this month.

“When you work or shop at an Exchange, family is just not who you are related to,” Daniel said. “You develop a bond with other associates and customers to where you feel like everybody is family. You routinely see a customer, learn their name and then maybe even a little bit about their family.

From father to sons

This familial connection began in 1966 with her father, the late Clenord “Bill” Northcutt, who spent most of his 19-year career driving merchandise and food trucks to Exchanges throughout Colorado. He retired in 1986.

Her son, Michael Jones, worked with Fort Carson’s Exchange for seven years as janitor and service station mechanic before becoming a sales associate at Robins AFB. He deployed to Iraq in 2012. Another son, Daniel Jones, worked for four years in food service at Fort Carson and then as a sales associate at Robins AFB.

‘Family’ takes on a whole new meaning

The roots of Daniel’s family Exchange service, however, run much deeper than just her father and kids. In addition to a slew of other family members, her mother-in-law, Sigrid Jones, worked for more than 30 years at Exchange restaurants at Fort Carson before retiring in 2004.

“With the combination of three different generations of extended family, we’ve served military families in just about every capacity, from restaurants at Fort Carson to the Autobahn shoppettes in Frankfurt,” Daniel said. “Like I said, when you work at the Exchange, the word ‘family’ takes on a whole new meaning.”