SOLID AS A ROCK.

• Author: Kinney, Ben

WE WISH A FOND FAREWELL TO OUR LONGEST-TENURED EMPLOYEE. WHOSE DEDICATION TO COLLEAGUES CLIENTS AND QUALITY HAS SET THE STANDARD.

In September 1989, Hurricane Hugo hit the coast of South Carolina and made its way up to Charlotte with a vengeance. The next day, Production Manager Moira Johnson made her way to our SouthPark-area office through downed trees and power lines to check on damage to BUSINESS NORTH CAROLINA'S computers, server and office. It was in the middle of our monthly deadline. Kim Walker, then the art director, and Editor-in-chief David Kinney were attending a conference in San Francisco. Moira, who was seven months pregnant, found the building full of water that had poured down a ramp from the adjacent parking garage.

The entire building was closed, and a security guard tried to stop her, fearing she'd be electrocuted. She bullied her way past him and waded in. When she got to our space on the third floor, she found the office, computers and preliminary copies of the latest issue were safe and sound. The work had to be done.

That's the type of determination that Moira has shown during her 33 years with our magazine, having done basically everything needed to keep us going in tough times and to help us flourish in the good times.

She is leaving BNC this month, though I can't imagine her not being here. I arrived as the company's general manager shortly after our previous GM died in a plane crash in December 2001. Moira was cool, calm, collected and helpful to someone who didn't know what the hell he was doing --me. Most of all, she was kind. All this even after her good friend passed away in a sudden, terrible manner. It meant a lot then, but it means even more today.

Moira, a Charlotte native and graduate of Virginia's Sweet Briar College, has been a true professional...