A Bright Spot
It's a rare skill, that ability to immediately put a coworker or customer at ease in any situation.
That special talent, plus equal helpings of kindness, caring and a wicked sense of humor will be sorely missed at the Butler Eagle since Nedra Sutch, classified line ad and front office manager, retired Friday.
Sutch, of Evans City, worked for the Zelienople News Weekly for two years when the Butler Eagle bought the newspaper in 1985.
She recalls typesetting ads, printing and cutting them out and putting them through a liquid wax machine to stick them on the page as opposed to today's digital means of placing ads in the newspaper.
After two years, the News Weekly merged with the Cranberry Eagle and Sutch moved with the operation to Gigliotti Plaza in Cranberry Township, and then to an office on Dutilh Road.
In 2003, Sutch was offered a position with the inside sales department at the Butler Eagle offices on West Diamond Street. She continued in that position in the Butler Eagle's new digs on West Wayne Street.
Sutch dealt with numerous customers every day and handled any and all situations that cropped up, as ads are purchased for everything from a fire hall's pancake breakfast fundraiser to business and real estate ads to golf outing announcements.
“I like what I do and I've made so many wonderful friends,” Sutch said of her years at the Eagle. “No two days are alike.”
That ability to handle customers with her famous kindly smile spilled over to her interaction with the many coworkers she has mentored over the year.
“She answered all of my questions or got me to the right person to answer my questions,” said advertising representative Sherry Gallagher, Sutch's coworker of 12 years. “I'll miss her asking about my family, her helpfulness and her acerbic sense of humor.”
Lynn Schraf, the Eagle's graphic designer, said she and Sutch share the same sense of humor and have laughed and cried together in the nine-and-a-half years they have worked together.
“She's a bright spot in everyone's day,” Schraf said. “You can always count on her to bring humor to a situation or easily de-escalate it.”
Keith Graham, the Eagle's vice president of advertising, has worked closely with Sutch since her early days with the Cranberry Eagle.
“Nedra's retirement is going to be quite an adjustment for us,” Graham said. “She's been like a mother to new employees and takes care of the rest of us just as well.”
Graham said everyone who came into contact with Sutch will feel her absence.
“She is loved and respected by her customers for her attention to detail, quick wit and sense of humor,” he said. “I'm really going to miss having her around.”
Tammy Schuey, Butler Eagle general manager, agreed that Sutch has a special way of making people feel comfortable in any situation.
“While everyone at the Eagle will miss Nedra greatly, her customers who have come to view her as a friend will miss her just as much,” Schuey said.
Sutch also assisted the editorial department over the years with her vast knowledge of all the goings-on and people in the Evans City, Callery, Zelienople and Harmony communities. She often provided contact information or driving directions to reporters working on an article from that area.
Sutch said she will enjoy spending time with her husband of 46 years, Doug, her grown children, Brett and Alyssa, and her five grandchildren.
She said she has enjoyed helping customers over the years, especially those who were completely unaware of the ad-buying process.
“It's very gratifying when they are pleased with the final result,” Sutch said.
In addition to her coworkers, she will miss those whom she has served at the Eagle for the last 34 years.
“Many of them aren't just customers, they're friends,” she said.
