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On Billy Nutt .... and guys like him

I have been away for a little while.

So, it was especially sad to see that Billy Nutt had been replaced as CEO of Greensboro’s struggling United Guaranty Corp.

United Guaranty is a part of embattled insurance giant AIG, and we all know about its travails.

United lost $2.5 billion in 2008.

Nutt worked at United Guaranty for 30 years and was known not only as a rock-solid businessman but a passionate booster of this community.

In my conversations with him, I could hear his affection for Greensboro in his voice. He wasn’t involved in community affairs because it looked good. He genuinely believed in the city as a place to live and work and raise a family.

Still does.

You name it, Nutt has been involved: United Way, the city’s PGA Tour golf tournament, the successful effort to bring Elon University Law School to downtown Greensboro.

He reminds me of another key business leader whose affection for Greensboro was obvious: Dennis Glass of Jefferson Pilot, now Lincoln Financial.

If not for Glass, the Center Pointe tower downtown might have wound up a pile of rubble like the old King Cotton Hotel ... a blank space in the skyline instead of an exciting new addition to it.

Glass made certain that developer Roy Carroll could purchase the building from JP for a bargain and added parking access to JP’s deck for good measure.

But Glass was whisked off to Philadelphia when Lincoln Financial acquired JP.

There are a precious few like Nutt and Glass still left in Greensboro.

But not nearly as many as there used to be ... captains of industry who did business around the globe but never forget where home was.