Perhaps there was no better venue for Charlie Harrell to be honored than here at the Tony Rand Student Center on the Fayetteville Technical Community College campus. And perhaps no one better than Billy Wellons Jr. to tell us what Harrell has meant to this community, and to this college.
“I can truly say he is a man you can trust, who has great integrity,” Wellons wanted those gathered May 8 to know, and where the 69-year-old Harrell was honored with the 2025 Distinguished Citizen Award from the Cumberland County Scouting America Occoneechee Council. “He is a loyal man who undertakes every task with a sincere sense of responsibility.
“Charlie helped to continue a family business and took on the responsibility to grow that business into a major automotive enterprise and has continued to encourage his own family to carry forward.
“I had the pleasure of serving on the board of trustees of FTCC for 20 years with Charlie,” Wellons wanted us to know. “He always represented the college in a fair manner to all, and never came to the board with an agenda. He believed in always doing what was best for the school and for the students.”
Charlie Harrell never was a Boy Scout, but Wellons, who was an Eagle Scout, says Harrell is the epitome of a Boy Scout if one ever was.
“Charlie represents all of the Boy Scout oath,” Wellons said. “I am proud to call him my friend.”
Charlie Harrell isn’t one for the spotlight.
Retired FTCC President Larry Keen said as much.
“Charlie Harrell is a doer,” Keen said. “He does not like the limelight.”
Harrell likely would rather have been somewhere fishing for mackerel on the coastal waters or playing golf and throwing out “Charlieisms” of self-deprecating humor over errant drives than being the center of attention on this evening.
But the Distinguished Citizen Award Dinner is an annual fundraiser for the Cumberland County Scouting America Occoneechee Council dating to 1981 with a “Who’s Who” of community honorees, and Harrell couldn’t say no.
“He has a willing servant’s heart,” Keen said.
Keen said he learned about Harrell in 2007, when interviewing with the FTCC Board of Trustees about becoming the school president.
“I was impressed by his questions, values and insights,” he said.
And when it came to helping others, Keen said, Harrell “was quite a philanthropist” in helping “a soldier” or “kids with toys.”
No reach was too far for Charlie Harrell. It’s just Charlie Harrell’s way.
And, he said, Harrell always was there for FTCC students.
“Those students and others can be appreciative of that caring hand of Charlie Harrell,” Keen said. “Political and state leaders met with us, and they listened to him. And I’ve seen him fight for those who could not fight for themselves. This honor is so deeply deserving for Charlie Harrell.”
Others would offer testimonials.
“We picked a good man for this honor,” said Dan K. McNeill, the retired four-star general who commanded the 82nd Airborne Division, the XVIII Airborne Corps, the U.S. Army Forces Command, the Coalition Forces, Afghanistan from 2002 to 2003 and the U.S. Army Forces Command from 2004 to 2007.
Christopher Cates said he saw in Harrell the compassionate heart of a businessman.
“I watched how he grew his business and treated his employees,” Cates said. “I can’t think of a better person than Charlie for this award.”
Herb Bryan has been a longtime friend and said family has been at the core of Harrell’s life.
“Charlie and Martha Ann have had a great success in life,” he said, looking the couple’s way, “and I am proud to be your friend.”
Along his way
Charlie Harrell grew up along Cape Fear Avenue just off Bragg Boulevard, the only child of the late Luther and the late Ruth Page Harrell, in what Harrell describes as a time of innocence with neighborhood kids. He graduated from Terry Sanford High School in 1974 and earned a biology degree from Elon University in 1978. He purchased his father’s Harrell’s Radiator Shop in 1979 and returned to Fayetteville.
He had strong business instincts and an entrepreneurial vision.
He founded Southeastern Cooling Supply Co. in 1981, which was a parts distribution company that evolved into nine Southeast locations for the ensuing 15 years. He later brought in son Brandon Harrell to expand Harrell’s Radiator in 2003 and co-founded Southeastern Automotive in 2004. The father-and-son team formed Harrell’s Automotive in 2019 before Charlie Harrell retired in 2021, and he just can’t get enough of those six grandchildren who have enriched his life.
Along his business way, Charlie Harrell has been a respected member of community organizations to include the Fayetteville Airport Commission; the Fayetteville Area Economic Development Corp; three banking boards; chair of the Greater Fayetteville Chamber Military Affairs Council; an elder of unwavering faith at Highland Presbyterian Church; and he spent 24 years as an FTCC trustee.
“Charlie Harrell truly is a man who understands his duty to God and country, his duty to other people and duty to himself,” said Cumberland County Superior Court Chief Judge Jim Ammons, who chairs the event along with Cumberland County District Attorney Billy West Jr. “This is the basis of the oath we take as scouts.”
Epilogue
Mike Nagowski, recipient of the 2024 honor, presented Harrell with the Distinguished Citizen award.
“You, Charlie, are one of the region’s finest,” said Nagowski, chief executive officer for the Cape Fear Valley Health System.
Harrell was a humble recipient.
“Fayetteville takes a bad rap, but it’s a good place to live,” he told the more than 150-plus audience. “I love Fayetteville, and the award meant a lot to me. I didn’t want to do it. I am a better behind-the-scenes person. I don’t like to be the center of attention. Jim Ammons asked me about the award, I told him there were other people more qualified for the award.”
Others surely would disagree on this evening when the presence of this 2025 Distinguished Citizen, according to Ammons, raised $55,000-plus in support of the Cumberland County Scouting America Occoneechee Council.
“You are,” Charles Flowers, chief executive officer of the Occoneechee Council, told Harrell, “a good scout.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
We’re in our third year of CityView Today, and so many of you have been with us from day one in our efforts to bring the news of the city, county, community and Cape Fear region each day. We’re here with a purpose — to deliver the news that matters to you.
