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By Jim Buice

For the Clemmons Courier

When remembering retired Colonel Al Dillon, who was among the early leaders when Clemmons was incorporated as a town, Mary Cameron gave an overview that was shared by many after his passing on June 21 at the age of 93.

“Al was terrific,” said Cameron, who was elected to the village council in 1993 and has served 30 of the last 32 years on the board and was elected when Dillon first became town manager. “He brought that military mindset, which was a great asset at the beginning of the village when we were still getting on our feet and getting to know what we needed to do.

“But he was not the typical military ‘my way or the highway’ kind of guy. He was always willing to listen to everybody, and he was very calm, cool and collected, very logical in his thinking and very congenial with everyone. You could not dislike Al Dillon. I think that was impossible. He was just loved by everybody. He did a great job. He will be missed.”

Dillon, who served as town manager from 1992 to 1995 and again on an interim basis from July 1997 to November 1998, played a key role in the building years for the village after incorporation, including the installation of water and sewer service, the improvement of city streets and the construction of the village hall.

Dillon, who was born in Woolwine, Va., in 1931, and Charlotte Garst of Roanoke, Va., were married in Roanoke in 1952, and they were together until her passing in 2021. They had four children.

In addition to a long military career that started when he enlisted in the U.S. Army at the age of 17 and served in a number of key roles in various places while earning many medals and commendations, Dillon also mixed in a return to civilian life when he graduated from National Business College in Roanoke, and became an insurance agent and later earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in addition to obtaining multiple graduate credits at various universities.

After “retiring” in Clemmons in 1978, Dillon continued to work in various capacities in the area as an Army ROTC instructor and later became the Commandant of Oak Ridge Military Academy for several years before taking on the role as the town manager in Clemmons. 

Dillon later took on a similar position as a consultant to the town council in nearby Midway in Davidson County before he officially retired, providing time for extensive traveling with Charlotte and more time to enjoy lifetime loves such as gardening, hunting and the great outdoors.

Dillon also received the prestigious Order of the Long Leaf Pine, which is presented to individuals who have a proven record of extraordinary service in the state, in a special ceremony in 2014. He was presented with what is considered to be one of the top awards presented by the Governor of North Carolina before a packed village hall prior to a Clemmons Village Council meeting.

That meant his name was added to a “who’s who” Order of the Long Leaf Pine lineup that includes the likes of Billy Graham, William Friday, Doc Watson, Richard Petty, Andy Griffith and Michael Jordan.

Bill McGee, who was a former mayor of Clemmons and longtime state representative, introduced Dillon that night, recalling a conversation the two had about duty.

“He summarized his in this way: ‘If the commander says take the hill, I take the hill.’ That was his credo,” McGee said. “And his country thanks him, and I thank him for it.”

Dillon responded by saying, “I feel extremely honored to be the recipient of this award. However, I have not worked solitary. There’s been a lot of people in this room who have just as much responsibility for getting this as I do.”

Nick Nelson, who was the mayor at the time, praised Dillon’s impact in whatever area he served. 

“Colonel Dillon has certainly had a tremendous impact on this community, our state and the United States,” Nelson said.

Jerry Brooks, the longtime fire chief of Clemmons, and Larry Kirby, who was director of public works in the village for 27 years and also served as assistant manager before taking over as town manager in 2015, gave similar views on Dillon. 

“I think about his military career,” Brooks said. “He was a true soldier. I think there was no question that he did his best as long as he was living to look after veterans, and was a good Christian man. Mr. Dillon was a straight forward upright man, a good man. He worked at a steady pace. He didn’t hurry anything and he didn’t get in a hurry to say we can’t do it. He checked everything out and had good people. As Larry said, ‘His first bulldozer was a shovel.’”

Kirby, who had been in church at Clemmons First Baptist with Dillon for 10 years before he became his boss, said he always supported the people he worked with to make Clemmons the best it could be.

“In my career, in a span of 50 years, I had seven bosses,” Kirby said. “I got along with all of them to a certain extent, but Mr. Dillon was someone who, if he called you in his office, and he said I want a pothole fixed in front of someone’s home, he didn’t mean in the morning. He meant before you go home that afternoon that’s got to be taken care of because he wanted to be able to call that citizen back and say, ‘You called and had a problem, and my staff took care of it.’ He backed us that way.”

During his comments during the Order of the Long Leaf Pine Award ceremony, McGee told another story speaking to the character of Dillon, who led the recovery effort when a May tornado “around the turn of the century” did major damage in the village.

“Al got busy and was one of the first in a wave of people trying to help others,” McGee said. “He was then and always ready to do what he saw as his duty. That awful evening it was to prepare ourselves to care for immediate needs and then to plan, execute and sustain recovery efforts for the next several months (which included leadership roles for Brooks and Kirby). Al was the man who provided expertise, know-how and willingness to provide energy for the long fix-up and clean-up.”

Like Mary Cameron said, “Al brought a stability with that military upbringing and just a formalness to all of it. I can’t think of one bad thing to say about Al Dillon, and I don’t know anybody who could.”

Editor’s Note: Several reports indicated that Dillon was the first town manager, but the official minutes of record in village hall show that Doug Flick was acting/interim manager when the village was incorporated in 1986 through December 1987, followed by Tom Long as interim manager through March 1988, followed by Charles Lott (the first official village manager) through November 1989, followed by Long again as interim manager through December 1991, followed by Dillon as town manager the first time in January 1992 through January 1995. David Smith then became village manager in January 1995 before leaving in July 1997, and Dillon returned as interim manager through November 1998.