Charles Lockwood

ZELIENOPLE — After nearly three decades at Glade Run Lutheran Services, Charles Lockwood, president and CEO, is retiring.

The staff held a retirement celebration Wednesday. His last day will be June 1.

“Aside from being a job and working to transform the agency, it’s also been my life,” Lockwood said. “Some people talk about loving your jobs, and I can’t say I always loved it, but I always knew this was the right place to be. It’s been my life really and my ministry.”

Since he came on as president and CEO in 1989, Glade Run has grown significantly in size, adding education, autism and expanded mental health care offerings among others, officials said.

In a farewell letter, the Glade Run board of directors thanked Lockwood for his years of service leading the organization’s expansion while maintaining its mission and connection with the church.

“He has given Glade Run Lutheran Services 28 years of outstanding leadership, unwavering commitment and accomplishment,” the letter reads. “The boards of directors, staff and all of his professional colleagues will miss his inspiration and innovation.”

Lockwood is still deciding on what his next chapter holds.

“I’m just going to go into it slowly,” he said. “I might get back engaged in the church some, do some traveling, some volunteer work.”

Lockwood received his doctorate of education from West Virginia University, master of divinity from Gettysburg Seminary, master’s degree in counseling from Slippery Rock University and bachelor’s degree in business from Plymouth State University in New Hampshire.

Glade Run officials said they are in the process of hiring his successor.