LaTerrie Ward retires, receives Order of Long Leaf Pine
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on April 5, 2016 1:46 PM
LaTerrie Ward has spent the past three decades traversing her way around Goldsboro's City Hall and, as she learned upon her retirement April 1, straight into the hearts of everyone she worked with.
Ms. Ward was honored with The Order of the Long Leaf Pine on Thursday at her retirement ceremony, and learned that the Mayor's Committee for Persons with Disabilities set up a scholarship in her name -- the J. LaTerrie Ward Scholarship, which gives outstanding youth leaders $250 to put toward their college education.
She received two certificates for the order of the Long Leaf Pine -- one from the House, and one from the Senate. Ms. Ward is the first person to ever receive two certificates.
"I was speechless, and still am," Ms. Ward said. "I've been in the presence of people who have received the Long Leaf Pine before. I always thought you had to be really top of the line to get something like that. When they gave me two, I was like, 'Oh my God.'"
Sen. Don Davis, Rep. Elmer Floyd and Steve Keen, state director of regional field operations for the office of Gov. Pat McCrory, presented the award to Ms. Ward.
The Order of the Long Leaf Pine is given for exemplary service to North Carolina and the community that is above and beyond the call of duty. It is granted to citizens who stand out in their communities and who have devoted their lives to serving others.
Recipients of the award are also given the right to present the North Carolina state toast to select company anywhere in the free world, which Ms. Ward will soon be able to take advantage of -- she plans to spend her retirement traveling all over the country and across the world.
Ms. Ward will be traveling to Egypt, Israel and Paris, France, as well as New Mexico, Oklahoma and Niagara Falls, to name a few.
She will also be getting married in July.
Ms. Ward said she retired because after she gets married she will be moving to Atlanta, Ga., and needed time to prepare to move.
"It's still not set in yet," Ms. Ward said of her retirement. "In two weeks I think it will, because I'm used to taking one week of vacation and going back to work. So I think after two weeks it will hit me that I'm not going back to work."
She has also already crossed one item off of her retirement wish list -- watching the sunrise, and not going into work as she sees it.
"I watched it at home," Ms. Ward said. "It came right up over the trees, and it was awesome. I stood there in the sun and it was just incredible."
Ms. Ward was the community affairs director, serving for more than 30 years. She headed up the Mayor's Youth Council for the entirety of her career.
She said she is still receiving cards and phone calls from people telling her how much she will be missed and how much she meant to them.
Shycole Simpson-Carter, who is the city's community development administrator, will be stepping in to fill Ms. Ward's shoes.
But, she won't be taking over as the community affairs director.
Mrs. Simpson-Carter's department and Ms. Ward's former department will merge, and Mrs. Simpson-Carter will head up the entirety of the two combined departments.
Ms. Ward's career spanned the tenures of four different mayors and four different city managers. Now, she is looking forward to her retirement spanning several countries and continents on her travels.
"I won't cease to work, because human relations goes on forever," Ms. Ward said. "But I will definitely miss the people I worked with."