KINGWOOD — When Kim Bolyard started at the Preston County Clerk’s office 30 years ago, typewriter, paper and pen were the dominant tools of the job.
Today there’s scarcely a typewriter in sight, but Deputy Clerk Bolyard said the friendly way the office staff waits on customers is the same.
“It’s just different here,” she said Wednesday. “Even the attorneys from other counties will come and say it’s just a different atmosphere here versus the county they came from.”
Those she works with said Bolyard hasn’t changed either. They surprised her Wednesday with a party in recognition of her time on the job.
“She can see humor in even the most difficult situations,” said Preston County Clerk Linda Huggins, Bolyard’s boss and a co-worker for more than 20 years. “We can be as serious as anything, and she will just come up with something that just takes your mind off the difficult things that we’re dealing with.”
“Customers that have been upset about something or not liking the process, she has a good way of coming across, explaining it business-like without anybody getting upset,” Huggins said.
Bolyard was 22 when she took the job at the clerk’s office. It was her “first real job,” she recalled. Prior to that, she had worked as a life guard and gave swimming lessons.
“Everything was paper and handwritten receipts,” she recalled. “There’s nothing of that now.”
And she has enjoyed her job. “Things are always changing. Laws are always changing; it’s close to home. I just enjoy the job,” Bolyard said.
Bolyard is married to Dean Bolyard. Her daughter, Emma, is 20 and her son, Wyatt, is a freshman at Preston High. She has a stepdaughter, Danielle, 33, who is married and the mother of two daughters, Bella, 12, and Callie, 9.
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