Strickland remembered fondly

One of the small measures of immortality that humans may achieve in this material, mortal world is the impression left upon the lives of others that have been interacted with and somehow changed — for better or worse, and also the impressions left upon those places most frequented or beloved by those that have moved beyond the bounds of mortality. In the case of Mayor Bobby Strickland, the impression that he left on the town of Salemburg is certain to outlast him by some few generations, at a minimum, because, it would seem, of the impression that he left on so many of the people of Salemburg.

In speaking with Salemburg’s current Mayor Joe Warren about the recently departed Strickland, who was laid to rest on Monday, June 2, it was clear that Salemburg’s current top public servant held his predecessor in very high esteem. “I was commissioner under him for 18 years, and of that I was Mayor Pro Tempore for 10. So a good little while,” began Warren, the man that succeeded Strickland into the mayoral role after 34 years. “It’s just unreal the business sense that this man had, he really showed me how to go after funding for the town. If someone, a politician or official we went to see, ever told us ‘we may can do that,’ but they really didn’t mean to, Mr. Bobby would wait til we got back to the car and then he would say Joe, we’re gonna get it, because I’m not gonna leave them alone til they give it to us. He got several million dollars together for this town like that, he did all the sewers, got so much done for this town. He just loved Salemburg.”

Teresa Smith, Salemburg’s town clerk and recently appointed budget officer, also had a number of things to say relating to Strickland and his passing. “He hired me in 2006, and he left in 2015, so right at nine years I worked for him. Then even after he left, Mr. Bobby spearheaded getting the museum together and everything. He was an amazing man, and a great mayor.”

When asked about any special memories that she might have to share about Strickland, that he loved Salemburg was the very first thing she thought to say — a sentiment echoed by anyone in the town that cared to speak on the matter. Likewise, Smith would share a further sentiment often echoed around town — that Strickland would often be seen around Salemburg doing what most would consider custodial or maintenance work himself, on his own time. “He made the business of the town his own, without looking for anything back from it. It wasn’t out of the ordinary to be somewhere in town and see him out cutting the grass himself, or sweeping off the town’s sidewalks. He loved Salemburg enough that nothing it needed was too much or too little for him to do while he could do it.”

The regard in which Strickland was held in life, and will for some while continue to be held after his passing is undeniably high in Salemburg, and perhaps provides some indication of the limited degree of immortality he will enjoy in this mortal world. The current leadership of the town was, by their unanimous acclimation shaped and trained up into their current roles by his example and through his leadership — and thus too will future generations continue to be shaped, in part, by the legacy that Strickland leaves behind in the little western-Sampson County town that he loved so dearly.