Sue Harmon knows where all the bodies are buried.
As Sue prepares to retire as Director of Operations after 30 years of working for the First Presbyterian Church of Metuchen, members can be forgiven for wondering just how the church will function without her. Call the office with any question at all, about a past member, or how much is owed on a pledge, or whether someone left a raincoat in the Social Center, and Sue will have the answer.
But Sue’s intricate knowledge of our cemetery and the 1,662 souls interred there, which she tracks on a spreadsheet, is particularly telling. Only someone with a deep appreciation for our congregation’s history and the members who made it what it is today, plus the operational skills to track all the plots and field queries about current internments, could pull that off.
Sue’s story with the church begins decades before she started working here. The middle child of five, she grew up in Edison but really grew up in the church, having been baptized here and taken part in youth group and youth choir and helping with VBS and Sunday School. Sue was confirmed as a member 50 years ago and served for a time as president of Youth Fellowship and as a member of the Deaconess Board, a vestige from a time when women couldn’t quite be considered Deacons. To hear Sue tell it, the Deaconesses seemed to do a lot of the real work. And the male Deacons? “I think they ushered,” she says.
Sue’s mom had worked part-time in the church office, and in 1993, Sue, by this time a mother of two school-age kids, got a job doing part-time cleaning around the main building and the old social center. Sue, always good with numbers, remembers the statistics: 14 toilets and 5 urinals, cleaned every week for nine years. Sue says she saw the job as a calling, and says she cleaned the church as if it was her own home.
In 1999, in addition to the housekeeping duties, Sue began working part-time in the office as she became a single parent. Then, in 2001, longtime treasurer Betty Mumm died suddenly at age 58, and the church was crushed. Realizing the books still needed to be taken care of, Sue managed to figure out Betty’s computer password and was able to help on an interim basis while the church interviewed for a permanent replacement. Sue wanted the job, and even after the search, she got it. She had to take courses in accounting and QuickBooks all while tending to her teenagers, Tara and Joseph.
Sue’s title for years was Treasurer, and she oversaw everything from pledges to paying the church’s bills to handling payroll and insurance. In 2018, her role was widened to other operations, and she leaves with the official title of Director of Operations and Finance.
Sue’s husband of 13 years, George, retired last year after 40 years of teaching, and Sue figured now is the time to join him. They will celebrate with a cruise to Alaska this year, after her tenure ends on June 30. The church will celebrate Sue just before then, on June 25, with an after-worship reception at the Social Center.
While Sue is retiring, she plans to continue as an active member, and she says that working at the church all these years has been a blessing from God. Sue also would like to thank all the church and family members who have supported her in her role throughout her years of service. She wanted to give a special thank you to Bob Rosko for all his time and support for the last 22 years. His expertise with technology has been invaluable to the entire staff.
“I feel like I’ve always been called to be here,” Sue says, “and it all started out with cleaning.”