ON MARY BURLESON'S RETIREMENT

On Mary Burleson's Retirement

In December 2004, I faced a challenging but very welcome professional choice. I'd recently turned thirty-two and, after building a solid career in writing, editing, and publications management, two exciting new job offers were on my plate. One was directing corporate communications for Coca-Cola North America. The other was the position of publisher at the newly invigorated Whitman Publishing, LLC.

The Coca-Cola position would have been a feather in my professional cap and an amazing opportunity with a global company. In a world unrelated to soft drinks and bottled water, the Whitman position was much the same. I couldn't resist its lure, and it was the iconic publishing company that made my final cut.

An important factor in my decision was Whitman president Mary Burleson (at that time, Mary Counts). Atlanta-based Anderson Press had purchased Whitman from St. Martin's in 2003. Mary had been crucial in encouraging Q. David Bowers to sign on as the company's numismatic director. I remember my first interview with Mary. She described her vision for the company's future. Dave Bowers would be fundamental to the firm's success. Whitman would also continue and grow its collaboration with Kenneth Bressett and other longtime authors, while developing a new generation of numismatic writers and researchers, including Jeff Garrett, who was already tapped for several books. I could tell that Mary was driven, focused, and creative, and she saw a bright future for this strong and energetic new Whitman Publishing. I've jokingly said that when I came on board in December 2004, Whitman was a folder-and-album company that happened to publish a few books. Mary Counts and the team she was building would usher in a twenty-plus-year renaissance in numismatic publishing.

Mary had earned the trust of the leadership of the Anderson family of businesses, headed by brothers Charles and Joel Anderson. Over the course of our long collaboration as "Whitmanites" (as Dave Bowers affectionately called us), I saw Mary helping the entire span of Anderson companies—not just Whitman, but also Sonrisas, Piggy Toes, Dalmatian Press, and other publishing firms and imprints; home-goods retailer Burnes of Boston; Tutu Couture; TNT Fireworks, and many others. She helped coordinate acquisitions. She went around the country and even overseas to inspect production factories. She opened new offices. She was tireless, and her work wasn't just high-level management—during Red Book crunch time, she would be in the trenches cross-checking spreadsheets and proofreading laid-out pages with everyone else.

Mary's energy, talent, and business savvy, and the deep trust and admiration she's earned from those who work with her, make me think of Longfellow's "The Ladder of Saint Augustine." "The heights by great men reached and kept," wrote the poet, "Were not attained by sudden flight, But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night."

For years, Mary Burleson has inspired hundreds of co-workers, not to mention thousands of people in the hobby community. She's a dynamo—and she's modest, so I know she'd be embarrassed to read this praise, but she deserves every word of it. I wish her the best always!

To read earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
WHITMAN PUBLISHER DENNIS TUCKER RETIRING (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n06a07.html)
WHITMAN PUBLISHING PRESIDENT MARY BURLESON RETIRES (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n36a20.html)

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