Washakie County Clerk retires after 38 years

WORLAND - Effective at the start of January 2023, Mary Grace Strauch will be retiring from the position of Washakie County Clerk after 38 years of service.

As County Clerk, Mary Grace helped a lot of people over the years; for every title written, every election vote cast, and every action taken by the Washakie County Commissioners during her career, she was involved in making these things and countless others happen.

When Strauch began her work with the county, she knew she had chosen the right career for her. She said "I liked the people in the office, I liked the work, and I liked dealing with the public."

She said her fondest memories of the job would be "Working with everyone in the courthouse, and making friends I've made over the years, and being able to help the public as much as I can. There's an understanding that people who come to the counter don't do this job every day so most people don't know what they need to do to get a title done, and being able to show them the right path to getting something done while helping them through the process has been rewarding."

When asked what made her decide that it was time to retire, Strauch simply said "Elections."

As county clerk, Strauch acted as Chief Election Officer, and was responsible for the administration of all elections held within the county, a role that carries a great amount of responsibility. She said "There is so much more to an election than people realize, so much that goes on behind the scenes." Strauch said that as distrust in election results has been growing in recent years, people across the nation have begun to question the work of people like her and that she was no longer interested in being involved in it.

Mary Grace has yet to make any plans for what she will do after retiring. She said "I'm not going to do really anything for a while; my husband is going to keep working for a couple more years. I love to quilt, though, and I'm going to do a lot of that. I'm just going to relax and do what I want to do when I want to do it."

Strauch has touched the lives of many over the course of her time spent as county clerk, and she hopes she will be remembered as being helpful. She said "I hope that I've treated everyone the best way that I could, and tried to help as many people as I could. To coworkers, I hope the same. I love them all and I'll miss them all, and I hope that they feel like I had done all I could to help."

Mary Grace will have a party to celebrate her retirement on Friday, Dec. 30 from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Washakie County Courthouse in the Commissioners Room.