Pfaff retires after 30-plus-year career nurturing Sussex County businesses

Bill Pfaff sees himself as a proud father, not only to his daughter, but also, in a way, to hundreds of others.

Pfaff, who retired July 31 after eight years as Sussex County director of economic development and more than 30 years total in the field, looks at the many businesses he has helped create and grow in a very personal way.

“I’m into relationship building,” Pfaff said. “I’m not a one-and-done person. They mean something to me. Every business that’s opened up in this county that I’ve been associated with I hold near and dear to my heart … It’s like they’re my children.”

His work assisting businesses in the county began in his previous job as director of the Delaware Small Business Development Center at the University of Delaware. He established the Sussex County office while working at the center from 1992 to 2017, assisting businesses in Sussex County and at times Kent County.

“He’s touched hundreds of businesses in the state in one form or another,” said Sussex County Administrator Todd Lawson, who notes Pfaff can drive down many streets and point out a business he assisted. “His time with the county has been a tremendous success.”

To business owners and prospective entrepreneurs, Pfaff has been a confidant, a leader, a cheerleader and a financial provider.

“As economic development providers, we’re almost like catalysts in a science project,” he said. “There’s a little bit of push that we can do to help these individuals that are either expanding their business or creating new business to help them fulfill their dreams.”

Annabelle McWhite, who opened her Fyzical Therapy & Balance Centers franchise in Bethany Beach with the help of a $25,000 low-interest county loan, said Pfaff made the process manageable and provided the last financial boost she needed.

“I couldn’t do it without their program,” she said.

Among Pfaff’s accomplishments in the county job were helping companies survive COVID-19 challenges, expanding a business loan program and opening the kitchen incubator at the Delaware Technical Community College campus in Georgetown.

“We had to help businesses reinvent themselves,” he said of the peak days of the pandemic. “That was a stressful time for business owners and from the county’s standpoint.”

At that time, many seniors moved to Sussex County, spurring a housing boom, Pfaff said.

After starting his county job, he restructured a seldom-used loan program of less than $1 million and created a partnership with Discover Bank and the Grow America Fund. The bank provided a $3 million match of funds, creating a three-to-one ratio with the county investment that was maintained as the fund expanded to $24 million in December.

The renamed ExciteSussex Fund has provided $7.5 million in fixed-rate loans that assisted nine businesses, including Fyzical, with projects that together helped retain or add 246 jobs. The program focuses on towns in the western side of the county, Pfaff said. Those communities have available land, affordable houses and workers to fill jobs, he said.

“He exponentially made that a success,” Lawson said of the ExciteSussex Fund.

While he has a calm demeanor, Pfaff is persistent and a good negotiator, Lawson said. 

Pfaff has at times pressed for changes in state law to remove obstacles hindering entrepreneurs, Lawson said.  

The county’s kitchen incubator that opened in November 2023 has 35 members who rent kitchen and storage space to prepare foods for their fledgling businesses. There are plans to double the size of the program by the end of next year, Pfaff said.

A few businesses from the program moved on to their own space, including Coastal Key Lime Pie, which built a commercial kitchen in Seaford, he said.

Pfaff, who took his first job as a lifeguard for a community pool at age 14, said he inherited his work ethic from his parents. His father had owned restaurants and bakeries, and his mother was a registered nurse. 

Pfaff earned a business administration degree from York College in Pennsylvania, but he encouraged young people to consider careers in the trades because they pay well and offer paths to owning a business. 

He praised his wife, Sherry, for raising their daughter Amy, and Sherry’s work as a second-grade teacher. 

“I’m very proud of what she accomplished as a school teacher,” Pfaff said. “I tell her all the time, ‘What you did as a school teacher was more important than what I’m doing as an economic development person.’”

One of his proudest experiences was serving on the founding board of Sussex Academy of Arts and Sciences, beginning in 1997. The charter school opened in 2000 to students in grades six to eight. Now known as Sussex Academy, the school includes students from pre-K to 12th grade.

“I think that’s a long-term lasting impact that a number of students get to take advantage of,” Pfaff said.

His daughter was among its first students and went on to receive a master’s degree in healthcare administration.

Economic development is important to quality of life in a community, as it creates opportunities for business owners and employment for residents, Pfaff said. 

“It’s been a great eight-plus years,” he said. “It’s been the American dream. It’s been rewarding to me. I think we accomplished a lot in that time.”