Just Jerry
Andrew Stilwell
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There are only a handful of attractions at Carowinds that have been at the park longer than the park’s longtime Vice President of Operations, Jerry Helms – and they’ve only got Jerry beat by a few weeks. After a 48-year career at “the place where the Carolinas” come together, “Uncle Jerry,” as he’s known to countless guests and associates, has announced his retirement from Carowinds. His last day at the park will be June 4, 2021.
Jerry originally had plans to go to college and become a teacher, but a wrong turn in the Carowinds parking lot in the Summer of 1973, the park’s opening year, proved to be the catalyst for the direction his career would take over the next half-century.
“I was in the parking lot when a gentleman in a Lincoln Continental drove up. It was then I realized I might be in trouble,” Jerry recalled with a laugh. “He asked me what I was doing, and I told him I was here hoping to get a job, and he said ‘follow me.’ He took me to the admin building, and told them ‘this young man needs a job, and they hired me to work in security.”
That man Helms ran into in the parking lot? Carowinds’ founder, E. Pat Hall.
“I was surprised how quickly I got the job, but they told me ‘Don’t you know we hire everybody that Mr. Hall brings in?’” he said.
Over the years, Jerry worked in a variety of roles at Carowinds, in security, human resources, and operations, where he has spent a collective 20 years in his current role as Vice President of Operations. Save for a short stint at two other properties that were owned by Carowinds’ former parent company, Paramount Parks, Jerry Helms will have spent his entire career at Carowinds. In that time, he has seen the park grow from a small regional amusement park into the multi-day destination that it has become today.
“The biggest thing I’ve learned in my time at Carowinds is that it doesn't matter who you are or where you're from, you matter,” he said. “If you work hard and you care about people, then you can be successful. That you're measured more about what you do for others than what they do for you. And the thing I've learned is I am not a boss. I know I have a title, it’s Vice President of Operations, but I’m just Jerry, if that makes sense.”
Helms credits his longevity at Carowinds to wanting to mentor the next generation of Carowinds leaders.
“One of the reasons I have stayed so long was because of the young folks – I call everyone kids because they’re younger than me,” he laughed. “I was young when I came and had to figure it out, but I also had folks that coached me along, and I try to be that for the next generation. I can't know everybody, but I try to pick up some folks that I feel like maybe every year could use somebody that really cares.”
Jerry met his wife, Irene, while he was a security guard and she was a “balloon girl” at the park. The couple recently celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary, and together have two sons, Mike and Jon, who also have worked at Carowinds over the years.
“Jerry’s been my right-hand man since I started at Carowinds, a constant we can all count on through ups and downs,” said Pat Jones, senior vice president, park operations, at Cedar Fair Entertainment Company. “Jerry is a mentor to our young people, a diligent overseer, creative problem-solver, and a fixture of the park. He will be sorely missed as a professional, a coworker, and a friend.”
Jones served as Carowinds’ vice president and general manager since 2016 and was recently promoted.
“Jerry has served proudly and tirelessly for 48 years and, to many of us, is so much more than a vice president,” said Debby Faile, Carowinds security manager. “Uncle Jerry, as he is known to our guests, is our weatherman, our entertainer, our finder of lost articles, and a mentor to so many of us. The park will truly never be the same without him.”
While we’ll all miss “Uncle Jerry” on the midways, his legacy will continue to live on at Carowinds, if not by name at the J.R. Helms Mining Co. building that houses Carolina Goldrusher, then definitely from his lasting impact on multiple generations of past, present, and future park associates.
Thank you, Jerry!
