6-25-2025 3:55pm

Pete Mason Retires From WCBDD After 24 Years

LEBANON, OH -- Operations Director Pete Mason has retired from The Warren County Board of Developmental Disabilities (WCBDD) after over 24 years of employment, leaving a lasting legacy as a quiet force for meaningful change at the agency.

Mason is a success story in Warren County, starting on the maintenance team and working his way up to become the Operations Director. Over the last two decades, Mason has helped the agency improve its building maintenance, IT, and beyond.

“Being able to help people, and to be able to support them in what they want to do- because it's so diverse, so many different opportunities to be creative, to be relevant- all of that is really gratifying at the end of the day,” Mason said. “And then to actually get a paycheck for all that?”

When he first started at WCBDD, Mason would describe the agency as “smaller and more crowded.” As both an observer of progress and an active force behind it, Mason has grown with the agency as it has served more people and secured more buildings. At the start of Mason’s maintenance career, the agency supported operations in around 12 buildings. Today, through programs like CHAP, that number has grown to over 90 properties.

Maintenance Supervisor Keith Gabbard Sr., who has known Mason for 50 years, credits Mason for the excellent condition of WCBDD office buildings due to his perfectionism and leadership skills.

Community Resources Director Carol Heil has worked closely with Mason through The Community Housing Assistance Program (CHAP), a nonprofit agency that contracts with WCBDD to maintain local properties for individuals with disabilities served by WCBDD. There are 88 CHAP homes in Warren County, including single-family homes, apartment complexes, duplexes, and condominiums. Mason and his team performed maintenance on each CHAP home.

Heil said she appreciates Mason’s broad maintenance knowledge and how generously he shares it, laughing that after a conversation with Mason, “you have now learned something that you'll know forever that you never thought you needed to know.”

The rest of the maintenance team echoes Heil’s sentiment, each with stories of Mason’s vast knowledge and generous mentorship. Maintenance Specialist Mike Virelli has known Mason for over 25 years and laughed that Mason must “dumb down” what he’s teaching to a third-grade level.

Maintenance Specialist Brad Bower agrees, stating that Mason has been the expert at all things having to do with HVAC, electrical work, plumbing, and more. Bower said Mason is “not afraid to teach anybody.” Beyond his professional expertise, Bower said Mason is also a great person to work with and is supportive of his team when someone is going through a hard time.

Maintenance Specialist Robert Abbott, who has known Mason for 24 years, compares working with Mason to working with a mechanical engineer. Abbott said Mason works well under pressure and is a great director, always praising his team for a job well done.

Virelli said Mason made it easy to come into work and considers him as a second father.

Anyone who has worked at WCBDD knows the unique bond shared by the maintenance team. At the annual agency in-service event, you’ll find them on the balcony laughing together, sharing inside jokes, and bringing their own refreshments.

Mason said one of his proudest accomplishments was hiring the entire maintenance team and supporting their continued growth and success. Gabbard said he will be deeply missed by the maintenance division.

Heil said Mason’s most impressive contribution to WCBDD was his preventative maintenance plan that emphasized the importance of replacing things before they fail. For example, Heil said he would keep a detailed account of each CHAP home's upkeep plan and would ensure each roof or furnace would be replaced well before it would break.

Beyond his technical expertise, Mason has also built strong personal connections with colleagues across WCBDD.

WCBDD Superintendent Megan Manuel said Mason was one of her first meaningful connections after moving to Warren County. That bond has endured for more than 20 years, with the two working closely together and sharing adjacent offices. Manuel described Mason as her trusted advisor and the first person she turns to for guidance or to bounce ideas off.

Manuel said that Mason is a visionary who is talented at envisioning plans. She said he has remodeled and improved every building multiple times over the last 24 years. She said one of his most valuable projects was transforming the WCBDD IT system to make it more accessible, inclusive, and secure.

“I think his legacy will be felt in ways people won’t even know,” Manuel said. “There are things that are because of Pete that we take for granted, but it’s there because of his great ability to prioritize both the financial aspects of things and the people we serve.”

Mason is the third WCBDD employee to retire this year after dedicating over two decades to the agency, marking the agency’s third retirement party of 2025. Emotions filled the room during Mason’s retirement celebration on May 29, 2025 as friends and co-workers came together to share personal stories about Pete’s kindness, dedication, and unwavering support.

While many of Mason’s co-workers use the same words to describe his sense of humor, kindness, intelligence, and maintenance expertise, everyone has their own story that shows just how much he has touched their lives.

Heil explained how she called on Mason to capture a 3-foot snake that snuck into her office, then forced him to search the room for snake babies before he could get back to work.

Human Resources and Community Relations Director Bill Caplinger said Mason once received an emergency call from a family served by WCBDD to take care of a cat, since it was residing in a CHAP home and Mason had the keys.

One story that came up again and again was his willingness to help fellow employees fix things in their own homes, generously sharing his maintenance knowledge far and wide. These stories and more show Mason’s willingness to go above and beyond obligation.

Although many have joked that Mason is not ready for retirement, he said he is looking forward to spending time with family and friends. Through every building he remodeled, every system he improved, and every colleague he supported, Pete Mason has helped build not just an agency, but a community. He will be dearly missed by everyone at WCBDD, but his legacy of thoughtful leadership will continue to shape the agency for years to come.

For more information, contact Megan Becker at megan.becker@warrencountydd.org or (859) 653-7445.