Bittersweet Farewell Accorded to Sheppard by Freeholders

CREST HAVEN – Bittersweet was the by-word Dec. 27 as the Board of Chosen Freeholder bid farewell to Vice Director M. Susan Sheppard. Having served two years on the five-member panel, she will become Surrogate Judge Dec. 31 at noon ceremonies in the Historic Courthouse.
But the final freeholder session was one of flowery – as well as floral – tributes to the Ocean City resident who will become the county’s first female surrogate and its 21 person to hold the office.
Director Gerald Thornton recalled the 2010 campaign during which Sheppard and he knocked on over 9,000 doors seeking election. “I sit here with very mixed emotions,” he began. “I’m honestly sad but in many ways I am very happy for Sue.” He continued that he gained “in this period of time a very honest, sincere, warm, caring friendship, one of those things that happens in life…If it wasn’t for Sue, in 2010 I wouldn’t be sitting here.
Thornton said it was in that campaign, when Sheppard wore out two pairs of shoes, and had one “flopping as we knocked on doors. She tied it with string.” He recalled another encounter in a Wildwood Crest home, when the temperature was “about 95” and Sheppard was bedraggled and tongue-tied. When the owner opened the door, Sheppard said, “I’m Jerry Thornton.” Then said, “Boy, it’s really cold, today, I mean really hot today. Then she said, I really look awful, don’t I? and he said, ‘Yes.’ We probably lost that vote,” he laughed.
“I am really speechless,” said Sheppard, who went silent as Leonard Desiderio read the resolution attesting to her board service, looking back and forth to the other members, laughing and sometimes hiding her face.
When she recovered the ability to speak, Sheppard remembered running with Thornton to open up county government to the masses. “We ran to provide a county government for everyone, and I’m proud to say we accomplished that goal.” As one of those keystones she cited the 90-minute caucus sessions, now public, prior to every freeholder meeting. There was no such time prior to Thornton’s directorship on the majority of occasions.
“God taught me a lesson not to judge too harshly,” she added.
She praised department heads who oversee operation of Tourism, Education and Public Offices overseeing Board of Elections, County Clerk/Adjuster, Culture and Heritage, Library, Museum, Park/Zoo, Rutgers Cooperative Extension, Superintendent of Schools, Surrogate and Tourism.
Additionally she was liaison to Advisory Commission on the Status of Women, Board of Agriculture, Chamber of Commerce, Culture and Heritage Commission, Jersey Shore Partnership, Library Commission, Park Advisory Board, Southern New Jersey Development Council, South Jersey Technology Consortium, Member of Atlantic Cape School Board of Estimate, Special Services School Board of Estimate and the
Technical School Board of Estimate.
Sheppard was elected freeholder in November 2010. She is an Ocean City resident, served as the 3rd Ward councilwoman in Ocean City from May 2008 until Jan. 4, 2011. Sheppard served as Council President 2009 to 2010. She is a 1988 graduate of Villanova University with a BS in Business Administration and a 1991 graduate of Widener University School of Law, Cum Laude.
Sheppard was an Associate in the law firm of Blank, Rome, Comisky & McCauley specializing in labor and employment law. She was the managing attorney for the New Jersey Offices of McCabe, Weisberg &
Conway and served as an Assistant City Solicitor in Atlantic City.
Sheppard runs her own law firm in Ocean City. She is a member of the Cape May County Bar Association, on the Executive Committee of the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce and is a former Trustee of Ocean City Free Public Library.
Sheppard was appointed by Governor Chris Christie in 2011 to serve on the State of New Jersey Congressional Re-Districting Committee.
Sheppard is married to Frank Faverzani and the mother of three school age children, Frank, Nora and Mark.