When Brighton native Curtis Mineart leaves the Washington County Auditor position June 30, concluding a 22-year career, he also ends 42 years of government service.

Mineart has served as the county auditor since 1977, and previously was deputy auditor for five years. However, when he took the post he had already had a 20-year career with the US Marine Corps, including duty tours in Korea and Vietnam.

Discharged from the service in August, 1971, Mineart returned to Washington, served as a high school study hall supervisor for a semester, “then learned there was a position open in the auditor’s and I went and talked with the auditor and applied for it.”

He was hired, and five years later when auditor Wallace Schrader retired, Mineart ran for the elective office. That was the first time he had opposition, something that would occur only once again during the more than two decades he has held the post.

His entire service, as deputy auditor and auditor “will be 218 years, five months and 14 days,” he said.

What does he recall as most positive about the post?

“The challenges of the office itself and meeting. It is a matte of solving problem and there is great satisfaction when that is accomplished,” he replied.

And the most negative?

“The challenges and the problems,” he said, explaining that there are aspects that become burdensome. When that becomes the more prevalent, “its’ time to back away.”

He has long viewed the auditor’s office as the “heart of county government,” because of its combination of fiscal and governmental matters.