By BETH CHAPMAN / Community Columnist

After 34 years of exemplary service and outstanding leadership, Debbie Butterworth is retiring from Alabama Power. Her retirement will be effective Feb. 3, 2012. As the southern area manager of the Birmingham Division, Butterworth has provided help to so many people and causes in our county.  There are few business people, if any, who have given back to Shelby County as much as Debbie and Alabama Power Company.

Butterworth began her work with the company in 1977 at their Gaston Steam Plant. She worked her way up through the company in various departments and positions all the way up to executive vice president external affairs.

Butterworth said when she came to Shelby County in 1999, her goal was to get to know as many community and business leaders as possible and help in as many ways as she could. She wanted to represent her company well and she has in so many ways.

The organizations that Butterworth has held a position of leadership with are listed, but not limited to the following:  American Heart Association, SafeHouse, Shelby County Education Foundation, Leadership Shelby County, Shelby County YMCA, Developing Alabama Youth Program (DAY), Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), Greater Alabama Council Boy Scouts of America, United Way of Central Alabama, Shelby County Economic Industrial Development Authority, Project Corporate Leadership, Greater Birmingham Humane Society, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Shelby County Arts Foundation and so many more.

“I feel blessed to have worked for a company that supported my involvement in the community we serve,” said Butterworth. She added that Shelby County has wonderful people and elected officials. “I’ve worked with so many people who have inspired me and helped me grow both personally and professionally.”

Butterworth said she plans on remaining involved in our community and helping to make it an even better place. With all that she has contributed, it is hard to see how it could be much better.

Butterworth looks forward to spending time with her husband, Bob, a State Farm Insurance Agent in Montevallo, playing golf and continuing her studies in exercise physiology and nutrition. I think she more that deserves it!

I feel confident that the 99 percent of people in our county who have benefited in some way because of her work and kindness join me in wishing her all the best in her future endeavors.

 

Beth Chapman, Alabama’s secretary of state, is a Shelby County resident and writes a weekly column for the Shelby County Reporter. You can reach her at bethchapman@bellsouth.net.