The Record Herald, July 6

Record Herald (Waynesboro) loses 'numbers guy'

By Shawn Hardy
The Record Herald

After a career that's spanned five decades and seen the presses roll some 12,000 times, The Record Herald's numbers man is retiring.

Business Manager George McKee turned off his computer June 30, ending a 39-year tenure that began in 1967 in the circulation department.

The long association has paid dividends from everyone's perspective.

“I'm fortunate I was able to do something I love, accounting, with no formal education,” McKee said in his final week. “The Record Herald allowed be to do that with on-the-job training and promoting from within.”

“Fortunate” also was the word used by Pat Patterson, the newspaper's publisher, as he reflected on the veteran employee's retirement.

“I've been fortunate to work with many talented, well-respected people,” Patterson said. “George is among those at the very top of that list.

“He's left his mark on hundreds of people and we have been fortunate to enjoy him as a friend and co-worker,” Patterson continued.

McKee was honored by current and former co-workers during a retirement dinner June 20 at the Savoy. He was their favorite person every other Thursday when he handed out paychecks and is known for his patience and persistence when dealing with challenging issues like medical insurance or billing problems.

His fellow employees always could count on him for a kind word or a pat on the back when it was most needed. A man of strong faith, he has affectionately been dubbed the “conscience of The Record Herald.”

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McKee, a graduate of Chambersburg Area Senior High School who calls himself a “hometown guy,” returned to Franklin County after three years in the U.S. Navy that took him on two Pacific cruises aboard the USS Bon Homme Richard.

He was a shipping clerk at the Waynesboro Knitting Mill for two years and briefly worked at Mack Trucks before starting at The Record Herald in the circulation department under Richard Kitzmiller. When Kitzmiller left five years later, McKee was promoted to circulation manager, a post he held for about 10 years.

Circulation has changed a lot in the past 35 years.

“There was very little young people could do back then to earn money other than a paper route. It was easier to recruit carriers than it is today,” McKee said.

“At one time, we had 14 adult motorized routes and I had memorized all but one of them,” said McKee, laughing that he never had to fill in on a rural Greencastle route because “the driver, Mr. Peiffer, never took a day off.” He noted there are more people available to substitute on the 20-some motor routes in use today.

There also are more people working in the mailroom, inserting advertisers' circulars in the paper.

“If we had three inserts it was a good day,” McKee recalled, noting, “We have up to 15 on Saturdays now.”

McKee's subscription in the circulation department expired when he transferred to the bookkeeping department to help business manager Jim Rumberger. McKee was promoted to business manager when Rumberger retired July 1, 1989.

During his early years in the business office, bookkeeping was done by hand, with red ink and black ink signifying debits and credits.

The office was the first at the newspaper to get a computer -- and it took up a whole room. Rumberger continued to do the books by hand for three months after the computerization to make sure the numbers jibed.

For McKee, who turns 63 this month, the numbers jibed for retirement this year, although he's not putting his feet up any time soon.

His last official day at The Record Herald was Friday, June 30, but he returned the following week to help his successor, Nicole Kipe, and business office co-workers Bev Kirkpatrick and Terri Bovey, with end-of-month billing.

Eventually, McKee plans to look for part-time work in a people-oriented field.

His calendar already is filling up with volunteer work. He's devoting more time to Rhodes Grove Camp, where his son-in-law Mark Story is the executive director, and is signed up to drive ill and elderly members of Five Forks Brethren in Christ Church to appointments.

McKee and his wife of 40 years, the former Nancy Anderson of Mercersburg, a registered nurse at Surgical Associates of Waynesboro, are active members of the church. They have served deacon couple and he also served on the church board at one time. McKee traveled to Waveland, Miss., earlier this year with a church group to lend a hand following Hurricane Katrina.

Known for his passion for golf, McKee plans to spend even more time at Greencastle Greens, where he is a member, and loves to work in his Zullinger yard.

“I also plan to spend more time with Mom,” McKee said of his mother, an 82-year-old resident of United Towers in Chambersburg. He also is the son of the late George McKee Sr.

At the other end of the spectrum, his granddaughters, Moriah, 6, and Lydia, 4, will be seeing more of “Pappy.” Their mother, Jill Story, is a stay-at-home mother. The McKees' son, Todd, lives in Vermont and is a social worker in a mental health program in New Hampshire.

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Patterson noted it will be impossible to fill McKee's shoes, but Kipe is following closely in his footsteps.

Like McKee, she's making the move from circulation to bookkeeping. She started at The Record Herald as the receptionist not long after graduating from Greencastle-Antrim High School in 1990. A short time later, she joined the circulation department.

She is the daughter of George and Joyce Miller of Greencastle and lives in Waynesboro with her husband of 13 years, Jeff Kipe.

Kipe enjoys bookkeeping and says her biggest challenge is dealing with a new accounting system, but McKee has trained her well.

“I've had the privilege of working with George for the last 16 years and I never wanted to see him go,” she said. “But I could not have found a better teacher, professionally or personally."

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