In a career that’s spanned 34 years — 26 of those with Cullman-based Inland Buildings and its parent affiliate Schulte Building Systems — Robert South has learned a few things.

For one thing, South — Vice President of Operation Services for Inland and Credit Manager for Schulte — has learned that character and the personal touch are values that not all companies prize.

“The culture here is great. It’s wonderful,” said South. “It’s all about teamwork; communication and caring…not just with any single group of employees, but within the larger community and even with our customers,” he said.

“And I love the company; I love the people I work with. The management of Schulte, down in Texas, are the same kind of people; people of character, as we have here in Alabama. With both, their word is their bond, and character means something to them. I’ve been some places where you’d better be looking over your shoulder all the time. Here, you don’t have that.”

A Cullman native whose early life was spent making frequent moves as part of a military family, South settled back in Cullman in time for him to earn his high school diploma at West Point.

“My parents had five kids, and we moved, like, every three years: Japan, Germany, Mississippi, Texas,” said South. “My father was an officer in the Army.”

Seeing the world at such an early age also helped South learn to appreciate what matters most about being able to call a place like Cullman his home.

“Cullman has grown since I’ve been here, from a small country town with a more rural feel, to a more cosmopolitan town,” he said. “But there’s still a small-town feel to the community. People are still important to each other.

“Even with the growth, people still wave when you meet them on the road. People come through to help each other when there’s a need. Having lived in some larger cities in other places, I know that that doesn’t happen everywhere.”

Robert’s married to the former Nancy Huffstutler, another Cullman-area native with deep family ties to the West Point community. “Her family owned the property next to the school,” said South. “Her dad gave the school the land where the football field is now.”

South’s also learned to take life as it comes, and to set his priorities on what’s important. He loves his job, and says he has no compelling personal reason to retire. Yet sometime soon, he’s planning to do exactly that.

It’s all about offering the next generation its own opportunity to put down long-lasting local roots, he said.

“I still like what I do,” South explained. “But I might retire when I turn 70, in a year from now — unless I decide to do it sooner. I think at 70, it’s time to let somebody else have their shot.

“If we old guys don’t get out of the way,” he joked, “then there’s nowhere for younger people to go.”