News

City honors Mosses for 27 years of community service

Lightning Editor Bill Moss and his wife, Interfaith Assistance Ministry Executive Director Elizabeth Moss, received a proclamation in their honor from Hendersonville’s City Council on Thursday.

By Amy McCraw, Published: October 3, 2025

Hendersonville honored Lightning Editor Bill Moss and his wife, Interfaith Assistance Ministry Executive Director Elizabeth Moss, on Thursday with a proclamation acknowledging their contributions to the community for the last 27 years.

The two will move later this month “to start a new adventure as ‘Grammy and PawBill’, as they are known to their three grandchildren and as ‘Mom and Dad’ to their two children in Boise, Idaho, where they all reside,” according to the Resolution of Respect and Appreciation presented to the couple during Hendersonville City Council’s regular monthly meeting.
The resolution went on to say that the city council and mayor, on behalf of the employees and residents of the city and readers of the Hendersonville Lightning “extend to Bill and Elizabeth Moss their sincere appreciation for all of their loyal and dedicated service to the City of Hendersonville and surrounding area.”
Bill and Elizabeth both thanked the council for the resolution and the Hendersonville community for its support over the years.
“I’m humbled and proud to receive this. Thank you for tolerating me,” Bill said to laughter from the council and members of the public who attended the meeting.
He said he respected the council and the leadership City Manager John Connet and Henderson County Manager John Mitchell showed during Hurricane Helene.
Bill also reminded those who attended the meeting that he will remain editor of the Lightning while in Idaho.
“I’m not gone completely,” he said. “I can see you from 2,200 miles away as I do sometimes from five miles away in the Flat Rock bureau. If I call you up, as you are always good about doing, please call back.”
Elizabeth said she too was humbled by the recognition.
“This is the nicest thing anybody’s ever done for us,” she said.
She thanked the council for its funding and support of IAM over the years and said she enjoyed the times she worked with Connet and Mayor Barbara Volk on issues involving IAM.
“It’s really hard for us to leave this community that we love,” she said. “We’ve been here 27 years. We raised our children here and we just love everything about it.”
Elizabeth will retire Friday after eight years as IAM’s executive director.
IAM provides crisis assistance with a range of essential items and services, including food for a week for each family member, clothing, linens, personal hygiene supplies, heat and utility bills, rent and mortgage payments, medications, pet food and other basic needs.
“Under her tenure as executive director, Elizabeth has grown IAM including the planning and construction of the IAM Thrift Store, the addition of the IAM Mobile Pantry which provides weekly food in the lowest income areas of our community where transportation access is limited, and she pursued and provided two ongoing new revenue streams and raised $5 million in grants. IAM has provided services to one in nine families in Henderson County,” the resolution said.
Elizabeth also volunteered to serve on a number of board of directors for various organizations in the community.
She grew up in South Jersey before graduating from the University of Florida with a degree in journalism and communications. Following an award-winning career as a newspaper reporter and magazine editor for the Miami Herald, the St. Petersburg Times, the Boston Globe, Florida Trend Magazine and the Times-News. Elizabeth also served as the Director of Community Affairs and Outreach in Pardee UNC Health Care’s Administration. She also worked as a fundraiser and major gifts officer for the Pardee Hospital Foundation.
Bill founded the Lightning in 2012 and quickly gained 1,150 paid subscriptions and launched a website.
The newspaper is known for its coverage of local governance, politics, culture, history and occasional features. The Lightning name embodies the paper’s unique character of fearlessness, speed and accuracy, the resolution said.
In the 2014 North Carolina Press Association contest, the Lightning won 10 awards and quickly became known for excellence in journalism. Over the course of eight years, the Lightning has won nearly 100 awards and Bill’s success also made national news when it was featured in Forbes magazine.
A native of Chapel Hill and 1976 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a journalism degree, Bill worked as a reporter at the Marshville Home News, Thomasville Times, Salisbury Post, Knoxville News-Sentinel and the St. Peteresburg Times before coming home to North Carolina in 1996 as editor of the Roanoke Rapids Daily Herald. The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group in 1998 named him executive editor of the Times-News.