His boots are on the ground in Bladen County

ELIZABETHTOWN – Some call him Charles Ray. Some call him a Pitbull when it comes to getting things done. Some call him a warrior in the battle over injustice. Some call him “porkchop” when they know it will put a smile on his face, and whatever they call him, he is larger than life in Bladen County.

He works tirelessly for his family, for his community and for his county and never just “phones it in.” The man’s boots are on the ground in Bladen County.

“I was born in Lumberton, proper, in Southeastern Hospital,” Charles Ray Peterson said. “But I grew up in Bladenboro.”

He graduated from Bladenboro High School in 1972 and Peterson was very passionate about playing baseball.

“We had a pretty good baseball team, and I was a pitcher and a third baseman,” he said. “We also had a pretty good football team and I remember that we went 8-1-1 – and didn’t even get to go to the state playoffs. Back then, the team that led the conference was the one to go. Our only loss was to the team that got to go.”

After high school, Peterson started at Bladen Community College and back then a baseball team was started with both he and Russell Priest (long time East Bladen coach and Bladen County Commissioner) began playing there.

“The next year I transferred to Southeast Community College in Whiteville to play baseball,” he said. “I think I did pretty good as a pitcher there and in high school I pitched three no-hitters.”

Peterson was known for his large frame and his ability to throw the heat. Some say he was intimidating as he cast that large shadow and stared down the batters from the mound before he came in high and tight with his fastball.

“My childhood in Bladenboro was special,” he said. “Bladenboro Cotton Mill had a semi-pro baseball stadium with the stands. The company was very fortunate and they were making a lot of money and in the summertime, they would have recreation ball for all the kids. We were there from 9 – 12 and from 1-5 every day. They’d bring some of the college players in for the summer and that’s what our young lives consisted of. And then on Wednesdays we would board the activity bus and they’d take us all to White Lake.”

Peterson said that it was “baseball night in America in Bladenboro. The Spinners would play and everybody came out to Spinner’s ballpark.”

“Some nights we would chase baseballs and try to take them home so we’d have something to play with during the weekend,” he said. “It was big time.”

Although that mill team semi-pro program disbanded by the time he got old enough to play in that league, he did pick up with a few semipro teams after college.

“Ater graduating from (UN) Pembroke where I was hoping to learn to be a coach,” he said. “I made the baseball team at Pembroke but it didn’t work out. I was doing my student teaching at Dublin and Mr. Lee King was there. Then DuPont called me. I hadn’t been married long and Daniel was on the way.”

He was torn as to direction, but King encouraged him with some life wisdom and told him that it was too good of an opportunity to pass up – especially since he was starting a family. He ended up finishing his student teaching while working at DuPont. He graduated with a degree in education but never did teach as his job at DuPont was just too good to pass up. He started out as a technician.

“I ended up the manager of safety, training and quality,” Peterson said. “It was a good job, but it wasn’t working with kids though which was a big part of my heart. At DuPont, though we started midget football in Bladen County. Man, I had some good players and there were some years that we didn’t get scored upon. When Daniel got older, I was working with baseball and helped coaching wherever he was playing.”

Peterson and his wife, Susan who is a retired school teacher had three children, Daniel, Beth and Emily. Peterson is not only larger than life in his community, but in his home too where he was a man bringing his children up in faith and to love. He was their hero.

Beth and Emily run a business on Main Street in Bladenboro called Market on Main. In a recent interview, the girls both commented lovingly on their parents.

“It is certainly a challenge to get everything done, but it has been so rewarding,” they said. “Our “daddy” is Charles Peterson AKA Porkchop and everyone knows him. He has his hands in a little bit of everything including interim county manager and most recently has added Market on Main to his resume.

“He keeps the roads hot by picking up and delivering furniture and other items, as well as helping us haul our kids EVERYWHERE. He taught us that we can do anything we set our mind to, and for that, we are thankful. Our “mama,” Susan, is a retired schoolteacher but nowadays you can catch her at any given time keeping her grandchildren, all 8 of them.

“She is the most selfless and loving person that we know, and she will never know how much she means to us! We have an older brother, Daniel and he and his wife Alex have 4 beautiful children together.”

It was an interesting nickname that Peterson had picked up along the way. Porkchop.

“That happened when I was at Southeast playing baseball,” he said. “I don’t know if it was a song come across or what. It was just something that just stuck with me. A long, long time ago.”

Peterson ended up working for DuPont for 35 years before he retired. During that time, he also got involved in politics.

“I’ve been in politics some 30 years,” he said. “At first, I had three children and they were all in school. My first campaign ad was me and my three children sitting on a bench in front of a school bus. I run countywide that first time for schoolboard. I stayed 12 years on schoolboard and I ran at large those three terms. After the children graduated, I felt as if it was time for me to get out of the board of education business.”

Peterson wanted to stay in politics and after his stint was through with the board of education, a seat was vacant in the 2nd District which was shortly after the world entered the new millennium. He won a seat as a Bladen County Commissioner and he has been in that position for over two decades.

One of the challenges that he has faced, now as a Bladen County Commissioner Chairman has been the recent feud between the Town of Elizabethtown and the Commissioners.

“Well…” he said with a pained look in his eyes. “I don’t sleep good at night. Believe it or not, I love this county and I think I’ve proven that with all my years of service dedicated to it. It’s never been about the money. And when Greg (Martin) decided to leave, I was an interim. Since February of ’24 this feud has been going on. Here it is May of ’25. When Eddie Madden was here, and when Bladen’s Bloomin’ and the town and everyone was working together and basically – whatever was said, people kept their word and that’s the way we did business. When the town changed managers, I guess we thought we could operate the same way, but we can’t.”

Peterson, said in an interview April 8, “there is no relationship. We are honestly fixing to go to court. The ball has been in their court for months. They’ve been dragging, they’ve been putting us off on things, and we’re not waiting another day. I took the gloves off on this one.” The disconnect centers around Elizabethtown’s plan to develop a “live, work, play” community within its industrial park. The park includes an airport with a 5,006-foot lighted runway. In 2023, the county gave $100,000 to the town to help fund a master plan for a proposed 33-acre residential and commercial project. The primary goal is to provide housing for Bladen’s workforce. The county’s dominant employer is the 5,000-strong Smithfield Foods meat packing plant in Tarheel. But only 6 Aghast at the revisions, Peterson asked for the city to return the $100,000 in a Nov. 4 letter to Elizabethtown Mayor Sylvia Campbell. Meanwhile, other projects began sputtering over newer disagreements.”

He is involved in many things in Bladen County. One of the events in Bladenboro that he most excited about is the annual Beast Fest. He mentioned after last year’s Beast Fest: “The band “The Pink Slips” were performing the crowd was so massive you could hardly move.”

“We don’t know what the beast is,” Peterson said. “But everybody came. The New York Times, hunters, and people from all over the world were here. Nobody got it. But we as a community were looking for something to grow our community, so we created the ‘Beast Festival.’ This is the 17^th year and it has evolved into something so big. I just wish we had a bigger place to hold it. We would love to show our new downtown off with the new buildings and we are getting ready to build some more.”

When Peterson talks about his hometown, he gets a bit overwhelmed with sentiment.

“This is a community that has a lot of churches in it,” Peterson said. “And you would think that a community with a lot of churches wouldn’t get along, but this is different. This is family and it’s community and we all know each other. We may not all agree with each other on Sunday morning, but come Monday morning we’re family again.”

According to Peterson, there may have been as many as 10-15 thousand people that visited Bladenboro for Beast Fest last year.

As perhaps his most challenging time and many would describe it as the dark night of the soul, two floods came and literally destroyed his town. He worked feverishly with the county and the town of Bladenboro to roll up their sleeves and rebuild. In March 2024 the grand opening of the new downtown had come.

Peterson who lives in Bladen had the wonder of a little boy in his eyes as he looked out to see the new downtown and the refurbished buildings.

“This means the whole world to me,” Peterson said. “I’ve been here a long time, and oh man, looking around I can say that our little town is back. Back in full swing and we got a whole lot more to come. It was tough getting started, but we pulled together and made this happen.”

The areas of eastern North Carolina are no strangers to flooding and one would think that when the big one hits with such a violence that some people would just pack up and move away. The question posed to Peterson was, “why do you stay?”

His answer was short and heartfelt.

“Because this is home,” he said. “I’m too old to move. Bladen County is a good county and the people here are amazing. The people of Bladenboro are very, very special.”

Peterson described the damage and told how the water levels were almost to the levels of the city traffic signals in one area of the downtown.

From the podium set out at the town square, Peterson addressed the crowd.

“Our town has become a thriving community,” he said. “Where we can raise our children and our children will return to live and invest in the Bladenboro area. There will be more success stories.”

At the celebration of rebirth, along with town leaders and those who had a part in the rebuilding, the Elizabethtown-White Lake Chamber of Commerce brought the ribbon signifying a new start for a town that is so deserving of the praise for never giving up.”

Peterson reflects on his life and calls it all good.

“I’m a blessed man,” he said. “I really am. I don’t act like it sometimes and sometimes I could do things differently, if I tell you something – and I’m wrong about it, I’ll apologize to you. I’ll try to make it right. We are human and sometimes we make mistakes. We need to make sure that if it’s possible there should be no moratoriums on second and third chances.”

From Chairman of the Bladen Hospital Board Foundation to Bladen County Commissioner Chairman to welcoming new businesses to exploring new opportunities for the county… to walking his grandchildren across the street to collect candy during a parade in Dublin. He’s made himself visible. He’s made himself transparent – and most of all he’s given every ounce of his heart to believing in God, family and community.