Remembering Barbara B. Gorham, Our Colleague and Friend
On March 19, 2026, our dear colleague and friend Barbara B. Gorham of Kernersville, NC, passed away. We are devastated by this loss and deeply grateful to have known and worked alongside her.
Barbara was ZSR’s first-ever in-house human resources administrator, bringing decades of professional expertise along with a spirit of joy and fun to our office.
She delighted in keeping track of her ZSR tenure — “It’s day 268 – another great day!” — and expressing her genuine delight at being part of the team. Though Barbara was with ZSR for just two and a half years (889 days, as she would have noted), she made a tremendous impact on our organization that will be felt for years to come.
Barbara had a playful personality and a beautiful singing voice. We first noticed her singing voice during a staff meeting, and it didn’t take long for word to spread to our trustees. Before we knew it, Barbara became the opener for all of our board meetings, kicking us off with original songs she created in the moment. Sometimes the songs were silly, sometimes they were serious, but they were always joyful and exactly what the room needed. Barbara had a way of tapping into people’s emotions — helping us not just get through the moment but embrace the work ahead with positivity and gratitude.
That spirit extended to our in-office celebrations, too. Every ZSR team member has been the subject of a Barbara celebration. On birthdays, Barbara would lead the crowd in a rousing, original rendition of “Happy, happy birthday to you!” On work anniversaries, Barbara would whip out her blue plastic clapping hand noisemaker. She’d run to the front of the room, waving the clapper overhead and encouraging everyone to join in, as the person being celebrated stepped forward for their moment in the spotlight.
Barbara was a proud native of Whitakers, NC, a small eastern North Carolina town, but life took her to many different places, and she seemed to know people everywhere she went. Last summer, for example, during our team retreat in Rocky Mount and Princeville, Barbara stopped multiple times to greet community members that she knew from other life stages.
Even with so many relationships across her life, Barbara made every single one of us at ZSR feel special. She was quick to offer wisdom, advice, or an encouraging word. As one team member shared, “Barbara made me feel very cared for and seen.” Another remembered that when she came in to interview, she stopped at his office door to greet him — something no other candidate had done. That’s who Barbara was. She loved people, believed in them, and brought out their best.
We are holding Barbara’s family in our thoughts as they navigate this tremendous loss. If you’d like to learn more about Barbara’s remarkable life, we encourage you to read her obituary.
We at ZSR will miss Barbara deeply — her voice, her joy, and the way she made each of us feel seen. She brought out the best in ZSR and in all of us, and we are forever grateful.
We will carry her spirit forward in the way we work together, celebrate each other, and show up for one another, just as Barbara did for us.
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