Athens Utilities General Manager Gary Scroggins, left, accepts a certificate of appreciation Wednesday from Athens Mayor Ronnie Marks at a retirement party for Scroggins.whose last day was Thursday. Scroggins worked for the city 21 years.

I had been sitting in the dark at The News Courier for about 30 minutes when I finally decided to call Athens Utilities General Manager Gary Scroggins.

Truth be told, I’m sure I was asked (or told) to call Mr. Scroggins, who retired Thursday after 21 years of service with the city of Athens.

The date was Wednesday, April 27, 2011. I had talked to Gary several times since I arrived at the paper just five months earlier. I found him to be a calming presence; a hard man to rattle.

If he ever was rattled or stressed, he never let on. And on that day, he had every reason to be. Our conversation went a little something like this:

“Hey, Gary, this is Adam at the paper.”

“Hey, Adam, how are you?”

“I’m good, thanks. Hey, Gary, our power is out. Got any idea when you might be able to get it back on? We’ve got a paper to get out, you know.”

“No, we’re working on it, though.”

“Thanks, Gary. Talk to you later.”

That brief conversation should be presented as a lesson in extreme cluelessness. Gary had every right to say, “Look, you S.O.B., the power is out all over the county. What makes you think you’re more special than anybody else? We’ll get to it when we get to it! Good day, sir. GOOD DAY, SIR!”

In defense of my cluelessness, much of the staff had no way of knowing how bad things were. Phones weren’t working, sirens weren’t working and the two or three people we had in the field had no way to report back that there was countywide destruction. We had no idea that, in addition to numerous, numerous utility poles being down, main transmission lines coming out of Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant were down.

Gary didn’t bother to let me know these things. He simply told me he was working on it. And, to his credit, he was working on it.

There were a lot of heroes to emerge that day, but hats off to the guys and gals at Athens Utilities who worked day and night and day and night and day and night and day and night to restore power. And hats off to Gary Scroggins for being the man who led the charge.

As for The News Courier, our power didn’t come back on that day. Me and Jean Cole drove down U.S. 72 toward a printing press in Florence — whilst dodging trees, power lines and branches — to ensure the April 28 edition of The News Courier was produced.

When we got back to the office, sometime around 2 a.m. the next morning, the lights of The News Courier were shining brightly. I immediately had to laugh because by that time, I had a pretty firm grasp of the destruction and devastation Gary was dealing with.

And he still managed to get our lights back on and they stayed on.

Over the next several days, I remember talking to journalists from other parts of the state, complaining they were having to work from this place or that place because their office didn’t have power or internet. I admit I probably gloated a little because we had both.

And for that, I’ll always be thankful to Gary Scroggins and all the other men and women who worked to get the lights back on after that terrible day.

Enjoy your retirement, Mr. Scroggins. You deserve it.

— Editor Adam Smith can be reached at adam@athensnews-courier.com.