Megan Miller
The Cumberland Times-News Fri Oct 22, 2010, 09:04 AM EDT
— OAKLAND — County commissioner, business owner and lifelong Garrett County resident Denny Glotfelty died early Thursday morning after a seven-month battle with cancer.
Glotfelty, 58, died at 1:15 a.m. at the Western Maryland Regional Medical Center, where he was taken by ambulance Wednesday night.
“The way he battled cancer for seven months was with a gleam in his eye, his head held high, ready to fight,” said Glotfelty’s daughter, Amy Beeman. “He was still ready to fight up until he said it was time to call the ambulance.”
Glotfelty graduated from Northern High School in 1971. He was the fourth generation owner of the Double G Ranch campground and also the fourth generation to reside in his family home in McHenry.
County Administrator Monty Pagenhardt, one year younger than Glotfelty, said they’d known each other since they played basketball together in junior high school.
“It’s a shock,” Pagenhardt said. He issued a written statement calling Glotfelty “a true friend” and “a loving husband, father, grandfather, brother and relative to many.”
“When he told me he had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, he was adamant that he was going to fight this disease with everything he had,” Pagenhardt said. “He did just that. … He certainly put up a strong fight for many months, and he was an example for all of us to follow in our lives. I will miss him more than I can say.”
In April, Glotfelty publicly announced that he had begun chemotherapy and radiation treatments, but would continue to hold his seat on the commission and perform the duties of the office.
“Despite the setback, I assure you that I intend to maintain my position as Garrett County commissioner and provide the same level of leadership that I have for the past four years,” Glotfelty said in a prepared statement. “My battle with cancer will not stand in my way of serving the citizens of Garrett County.”
“He put up a good front,” fellow Commissioner Fred Holliday said Thursday. “He truly thought he was going to get better, and so did the rest of us.”
Holliday said one of his fondest recollections of working with Glotfelty was his openness and laid-back approach in discussions.
“Being able to work with him and not having to worry about every word you said being politically correct,” Holliday explained. “It was a pleasure working with him. … He always had the best interest of the county at heart and wanted to do what was best for the people in the county.”
Commission President Ernie Gregg called Glotfelty’s death “a tragedy.” He pointed to Glotfelty’s staunch advocacy for personal property rights and fiscal conservatism as the hallmarks of his work as a commissioner.
“We had a very amicable and workable relationship,” Gregg said. “If we disagreed on an issue, it was never personal, always business and professional.”
Glotfelty, a Republican, was at the end of his first term as a county commissioner and seeking re-election to the District 3 seat. He defeated three Republican challengers in September’s primary election and continued to campaign despite his illness.
Beeman stressed that her father “did not intentionally mislead” county voters by running for re-election while seriously ill.
“He wholeheartedly expected to be well enough to not only win the general election, but to serve out a full term,” she said. “He wholeheartedly believed that he was going to beat cancer.”
She said that she will remember Glotfelty as her personal hero.
“No matter what the decision was that had to be made, Dad always made the one that he felt was the right choice,” she said. “He didn’t get swayed by people saying, ‘You need to do this.’ He was an upstanding man.”
In his candidate statement, published by the Times-News in June, Glotfelty called it “a pleasure” to serve the citizens of Garrett County.
“I believe we have begun to positively change the way we think about the county’s future,” he said. “We’ve witnessed great change over the past few years, and no doubt we’ll see more change in the years to come. We will face some difficult challenges … but if we hold fast to fiscally-conservative approaches to governance and hold ourselves and our elected officials to high standards and demand realistic, common-sense problem solving, then our best years truly may be ahead of us.”
Viewings will be held both Saturday and Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. at the Newman Funeral Home in Grantsville. A funeral service will be held Monday at 11 a.m. at the Cherry Glade Mennonite Church.
