Macon County lost one of its longtime native residents last week; a man who made a difference in many ways throughout the county and Western North Carolina. Jerry Sutton died on June 29, 2022, at the age of 85.
After graduating from N.C. State in 1954, Sutton returned home to Macon County and taught at Franklin High School for one year before resigning to run the family’s dairy farm in the Clarks Chapel community.
Over the next six decades Sutton served his community in a variety of ways from agriculture and education to public safety and community development.
In 1974 he saw the need for fire departments in rural areas and organized the Clarks Chapel Volunteer Fire Department, of which he served as chief for 28 years. At the time, Clarks Chapel was the first rural fire department west of Haywood County. Over the years, he helped other rural communities build their fire departments and spent 10 years serving as chairman of the Macon County Fire Commission. In 2009, Southwestern Community College named the Public Safety Training Center, located in the Macon County Industrial Park, in honor of Sutton.
Sutton also understood the challenges facing rural communities and was active in the Community Development program since the early 1950s, also serving on the regional WNC Communities board.
“He maintained a very strong relationship with the ever-changing leadership of county government to make sure they didn’t forget the rural communities,” said L.T. Ward, vice president of the WNC Communities board, who served with Sutton for about 40 years.
When Sutton decided to retire from the board earlier this year, they honored him as a lifetime board member.
Ward said Sutton was dedicated to ensuring people in rural communities had a high quality of life and used his skills to make things happen. “He was a very quiet person, but with a very strong influence and impact,” Ward said. “We will miss his leadership.”
Janie Sutton of the Holly Springs community said she was blessed to get to know Sutton through Community Development. “He was always such a gentleman and through attending many Community Development meetings, that Jerry also attended, I readily saw his love and commitment to God, his church, Macon County, the Clarks Chapel community and fire department, and his family,” she said.
Janie Sutton said even when Mr. Sutton’s health was declining, he volunteered to be the president of the Macon County Community Development Council to make sure community development efforts continued in the county.
“In his own easy-going way, Jerry just got things done. All that he did was never for his own recognition, but wholly for the good of others. Jerry will indeed be missed by me, and I am sure, countless others,” she said.
Being one of the county’s last remaining dairy farmers, Sutton was involved in the Macon County Fair from its early years in the 1950s. His father was one of the charter members of the fair board, and Sutton began showing cattle at the fair when he was in high school. He had served on the Fair Board since 1960.
“He was a good person to work with and was always willing to work,” said Tex Corbin, who served on the fair board with Sutton. “If he told you he was going to do something, you could count on him to do it.”
Corbin said while Sutton was in high school he held a state leadership position with the Future Farmers of America, and later his son, Chuck, also held an FFA state position. “I don’t know of any other family that had a father and son serve at the state level in FFA.”
Fair board member Alvin Doster said he and Sutton (a second cousin) go way back and worked on the farm together when Doster was in high school. “He milked in the morning, and I milked in the afternoon after school.” They also worked in the hay fields together and cutting silage.
Later Sutton recruited him to serve on the fair board. “He was a big influence in my life,” Doster said. “I have so many memories of him.”
Even after he retired from farming, Sutton would go to Mills River every year and bring back jersey cows for the FFA students to show at the fair. The cows were part of the Biltmore Farms heritage herd.
“He tried to keep dairy farming in front of the people,” said Doster. “It was important to him that people remember the Macon County dairies.”
Doster said Sutton had a lot of influence in Raleigh and worked hard to advocate for agriculture. Sutton was inducted into the WNC Agriculture Hall of Fame in 2008.
Sutton served on the Macon County Board of Commissioners (two years a chairman), the Macon County School Board (two terms as chairman), the Macon County Soil and Water Conservation Board, Southwestern Economic Development Council, the N.C. Dairy Herd Improvement Association board and served as president of the N.C. Dairy Association. He retired as director of the western office of Gov. Jim Hunt, who was a longtime friend from their days together at N.C. State.
Some of the honors Sutton received over the years include Outstanding Young Farmer for the state, the Franklin Jaycees Young Man of the Year, N.C. Farm Family of the Year, WNC Dairyman of the Year and WNC Community Development Association Man of the Year.
Sutton served on the Southwestern Community College Board of Trustees for 32 years, including seven terms as chairman. In 2019 he participated in the ceremony as his grandson, Cory McCall, was sworn in as a board member.
Upon Sutton’s retirement from the board in 2015, SCC President Don Tomas presented him with a plaque that read in part “What we do for ourselves dies with us. And what we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.”
Tomas concluded with, “Your legacy will live on forever, Mr. Sutton.”