The Times is counting down its top stories of 2022. Here’s No. 9:

This year closed the book on more than half a century of combined leadership from two of Cullman County’s longest-serving and most reliable public servants.

Longtime Cullman Emergency Management Agency director Phyllis Little retired from an 18-year career at the helm of the EMA office on Jan. 1. Now, as 2022 draws to a close, Cullman City Police Chief Kenny Culpepper is stepping away from the key local law enforcement position he’s held since 1988.

Cullman County natives each, both Little and Culpepper enjoyed local careers in their respective fields that extend even farther back in time than their lengthy tenures at the top of their field. Little first joined the EMA office as an administrative assistant in 1995; Culpepper joined CPD as an officer all the way back in 1978. Taken together, their retirements bring an end to 70 years’ worth of local, on-the-job experience.

Throughout their time in two of the area’s top public safety roles, Little and Culpepper helped guide area response efforts to some of the most memorable and difficult tests of the Cullman community’s resilience in most people’s living memory. The Times recognized each for going above and beyond their duty in ways that transcend job descriptions, naming Culpepper its Distinguished Citizen of the Year for 2016, and extending the same honor to Little in 2020.

“From disease to hazmat spills; from snowstorms to sinkholes, no single person has been more pivotal in helping Cullman County get its resources to the people and communities who need it most in the aftermath of disaster for the past 25 years,” The Times wrote in recognizing Little back in 2020, only months before she revealed her plans to retire.

“Some leaders play a high-profile role, while others are quietly going about changing lives through charity and compassion, The Times wrote in naming Culpepper its Distinguished Citizen, singling out the chief’s “gift for teaching and a keen sense of observing and acting on trends that could affect the community.”