Sally Shutt says what she will miss most are the people she has worked with during her 20-plus years of service with Cumberland County.
They’ll miss Sally Shutt more, and Cumberland County Manager Clarence Grier is among them.
“Sally has been a cornerstone of our management team, consistently demonstrating professionalism, innovation and a deep dedication to the people of Cumberland County,” Grier said about Shutt, 63, who retired June 30 as assistant county manager. “Her contributions have set a high standard for public service, and she leaves behind a lasting legacy of positive change.”
Grier could not have said it better.
When it came to whatever was happening in this county, no issue escaped Sally Shutt.
She was committed.
She was dedicated.
She was a pro’s pro when it came to county government.
“It has been an honor and privilege to have served with Cumberland County and there are many things I loved and found rewarding about my job,” Shutt said. “Being a public servant and a part of an organization committed to providing important services that affect the daily lives of people. Sharing information about Cumberland County government to various audiences and through different outlets. Helping people learn about their local government and find the information they were seeking.”
When you needed an answer about this county, you could count on Sally Shutt. She didn’t give you any of the governmental or bureaucratic jargon. She was dependable. She was reliable. She was Sally Shutt.
From the newspaper to the county
Before working with the county, Shutt was a 1980 graduate of Cape Fear High School and 1984 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a journalism degree, and she quickly gained employment out of college at The Fayetteville Observer newspaper working under the late Frances Hasty as a feature writer for the popular Sunday publications, which included the Home Front, Living and Insight sections.
She remembers Hasty as a soft-spoken editor and a role model for a cub reporter.
“I was so excited to be working for my hometown newspaper,” Shutt said.
She had a knack for interviewing people.
She was skilled at writing a story.
Sally Smith’s journalism career changed direction in 1987, when she married Jim Shutt, a lieutenant with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg. Army life would take the couple to military bases to include Camp James E. Rudder, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla; Fort Irwin, Calif; Fort Benning, Ga.; Schofield Barracks, Hawaii; Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.; back to Fort Benning; and finally back to Fort Bragg, where Jim Shutt would retire in 2007 as a lieutenant colonel.
She found part-time work for various civilian and military newspapers while earning her master’s in mass communication and media arts in 2005 from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.
When Jim Shutt returned to Fort Bragg in 2005, the couple bought a home along River Road near Eastover, which wasn’t far from where Sally Shutt grew up the daughter of Gilbert “Gip” and the late Janie Smith. Her father grew tobacco, soybeans, corn and wheat. He was a county pioneer in the cattle business and was inducted into the Cumberland County Agricultural Hall of Fame in 2015. Janie Smith worked for the Social Security Administration and helped manage the family farm. She died at age 82 on Dec. 29, 2018.
“Our two daughters were going to attend my high school, Cape Fear,” she said. “I was so excited. In my mind, I was going to return to the Fayetteville Observer, where I had started my journalism career 21 years earlier.”
God, she says, had other plans.
Shutt was hired in 2005 as a public information specialist for the Cumberland County Public Library and Information Center, according to a news release, before former County Manager James Martin hired her in 2009 as the county’s public information officer. She was promoted to governmental affairs officer in 2014. Shutt completed the Leading for Results program in 2017 at the UNC School of Government as a Local Government Federal Credit Union fellow, where she was recognized as one of the 50 emerging leaders in local government statewide.
Then-County Manager Amy Cannon promoted Shutt to assistant county manager in March of 2017, where Shutt was responsible for the county’s board of elections, planning and inspections, the soil and water conservation district, solid waste and public utilities, according to the release. She also was liaison for intergovernmental relations, military affairs, legislative services and advocacy and strategic planning and initiatives.
“Sally’s legacy is one of unwavering commitment to transparency, community engagement and excellence in public service,” Kirk deViere, chair of the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners, said on June 17, when Shutt was honored with the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the state’s highest civilian award. “Her vision and leadership have profoundly shaped the way Cumberland County communicates with its citizens and her impact will be felt for years to come.”
‘I will miss the people’
Pondering retirement is not easy. It’s difficult to walk away from a job and people who have been such an integral part of your working career.
“I prayed to know the right time to retire, and I found peace once I decided to focus more time and energy on my family, which includes my 95-year-old father and four grandchildren,” Shutt said. “I am grateful that I have acquired more than 21 years of creditable service in the N.C. Local Governmental Employees’ Retirement System.”
Shutt is thankful for county managers to include James Martin, Amy Cannon and Clarence Grier, and to county commissioners present and past who put their trust in her abilities.
“I will miss the people who I have had the pleasure of working with, both inside the organization and outside,” she said.
And Shutt says she forever will be grateful for Jim Shutt, her husband of 38 years. She describes him as “my biggest encourager and sounding board” along her career way.
“I am looking forward to this new chapter with him,” she said, “and spending more time with our daughters and their families.”
These days, Shutt says she will devote her retirement time to caring for her 95-year-old father, doting on her four grandchildren, visiting family in Texas, Washington and Kentucky, volunteering at her Lebanon Baptist Church and catching up on home projects, which can be a job in itself. Home may be where the heart is, but home can be that place for the dripping kitchen faucet or the air conditioning unit on the fritz in the dog days of summer.
Epilogue
Sally Shutt says she was fortunate to work two decades for county managers James Martin, Amy Cannon and Clarence Grier, and they will tell you there was no one quite like Sally Shutt.
She was a presence.
“Sally Shutt has been an exemplary employee serving Cumberland County with unwavering dedication and professionalism,” Cannon said. “Sally’s vast role can be characterized as an ambassador for the county, embodying professionalism, authentic passion, adaptability, genuine communication and the ability to build meaningful relationships. Her selfless public service and dedication to the county team have left a lasting impact.”
Martin echoed Cannon.
“One of the absolute best hires I ever had anything to do with,” Martin said. “She is an amazing person, a super person. Absolutely top of the line. I can’t say enough about her and her work ethic. Hiring Sally was one of the best moves I ever made. She is one of the most versatile people you can imagine.”
Whatever the county needed, Sally Shutt was there.
News reporters are in her debt, too, and you can count me among the reporters.
“Yes, I am starting down a new path, but I will continue to pray for those in authority just as we are called to do,” Shutt told commissioners Kirk deViere, Veronica Jones, Glenn Adams, Jeannette Council, Marshall Faircloth, Henry Tyson and Pavan Patel and many of her fellow employees on June 17. “And I will continue to pray for our county employees, those public servants on the front lines answering the calls, providing services and meeting the needs of our county residents. It has been an honor and privilege to have served with you.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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