By Emily Ford
Salisbury Post
KANNAPOLIS ó Almost every night after directing development of the N.C. Research Campus, Lynne Scott Safrit turns into a rock star.
“Hey! Ho! Let’s go!” Safrit belts out while playing a rock ‘n roll video game with her family in their Kannapolis home.
Observers of the N.C. Research Campus might be surprised to hear Safrit, the composed, well-spoken director of David H. Murdock’s groundbreaking biotechnology venture, singing “Blitzkreig Bop” by the Ramones.
But whenever she has the chance, there’s nothing Safrit would rather do than hang out with her family.
With husband Wally on bass, daughter Elizabeth on drums and son Wil on guitar ó electric toys that come with the video game ó Safrit’s blond hair and big smile make her look a little bit like the mom from the Partridge Family.
Often working 16-hour days, fielding calls from around the world about the $1.5 billion health and nutrition research project and negotiating deals with potential campus tenants, Safrit gives just as much to her family and church.
Wally Safrit extolled this virtue when Catawba College inducted his wife into its Business Hall of Fame last year.
“She is well-gifted for the business world, but she cherishes motherhood more,” he wrote. “She is at ease standing to speak for a thousand people, but she prays on her knees.”
Prioritizing everything
Safrit counts knowing how to set priorities as one of her greatest achievements. She is renowned for the skill.
“She does as good a job as anyone in balancing work and life,” said Mike Legg, a friend and the Kannapolis city manager.
Safrit can juggle many balls at once, said Phil Kirk, former president of the state chamber of commerce who serves with Safrit on the Catawba College Board of Trustees.
“She is Mrs. Everything,” Kirk said.
But it took practice.
Early in Safrit’s career, work consumed her. She climbed the ranks in Murdock’s real estate companies and was named president of Atlantic American Properties in 1989. She was 31.
Then, at 33, an unwelcome surprise. She was pregnant.
Her career plan had not included motherhood at that time.
“I could not see myself in both those roles,” she said.
When her daughter was 4 months old, she found out she was pregnant again. In the middle of important business deals, she did not reveal the pregnancy for several months.
She took no maternity leave and worked from home the day she brought both babies home from the hospital.
Looking back, she called her behavior sad.
“If I had it to do over, I wouldn’t do that,” she said. “I thought work was so important that I didn’t take time to be with my babies.”
When Elizabeth and Wil were toddlers, Safrit had an epiphany. She realized she didn’t want to someday wish she’d spent more time with her family.
“It’s great to have a nanny, but a nanny can’t replace you as a mother,” she said.
Now, as president for real estate developer Castle & Cooke North Carolina, which has grown from 10 employees to 40 since Murdock launched the Research Campus, Safrit cherishes time with her children and husband and goes to great lengths so they can be together.
She always takes the first flight home while traveling, and once flew back and forth to a business meeting in Hawaii within 36 hours so she could join her family in Pinehurst.
Family ties
Born Norma Lynne Scott nearly 50 years ago, Safrit was going to be named for her father, Norman, “one way or another,” she joked.
Both parents worked in Cannon Mills for 40 years, and Safrit helped them for several years as a mill hand.
Her father, who died about 12 years ago, dropped out of high school after the 11th grade. But when Safrit, still in her 20s, decided to get her real estate license, he didn’t want her driving alone at night to a community college in Charlotte. So he got his real estate license, too.
Norman Scott hadn’t been in school for more than 40 years.
“I was so proud of him,” Safrit said.
Her mother, Mary Scott, lives on Countryside Drive, less than a mile from the area where Safrit grew up on West C Street.
She also dropped out of high school, but the Scotts insisted that all three daughters attend college.
Ten and 12 years older than Safrit, her sisters helped raise the bright girl who learned to play piano at age 5 and memorized Shakespeare before she could read.
Safrit’s sisters, who added the “e” to her name to make it special, insisted that little Lynne say, “Out, darned spot!” instead of cursing when she recited the soliloquy from Lady Macbeth.
Sister Jackie Jack, who lives in Key Largo, Fla., said Safrit was their “little star.” They spoiled her rotten, but she never showed it.
“She was determined and very considerate,” Jack said. “She’s the most generous person I know.”
Sister Dianne Moon, who works at Atlantic American Properties in Kannapolis, said her baby sister was always easygoing, “and she’s still that way.”
Always working
Other than her dorm room at Catawba College, Safrit lived with her parents until she married Wally Safrit, now the Kannapolis city attorney, at age 29.
She considers herself a workaholic and often talks on the phone until midnight, since many of her colleagues are three hours earlier in Los Angeles, headquarters of Castle & Cooke. She didn’t own a pair of jeans until a few years ago.
The N.C. Research Campus takes 100 percent of her work time now.
“This is such a transformational project, it doesn’t feel like work,” she said. “I feel privileged to be involved.”
Safrit, a Republican, reads one book a week, mostly political thrillers but also autobiographies, including “Saving Graces” by Elizabeth Edwards and “Dreams from My Father” by Barack Obama.
She carries a book everywhere and even reads at red lights, instructing her kids to “tell me when the light changes.”
She and her husband collect first-edition books, including a “Gone With the Wind” they found in Atlanta that could buy a nice car.
The Safrits have a housekeeper three days a week. Mostly they eat out, but on the weekends, Wally Safrit cooks.
In the morning, mother and daughter get ready together. They share their most recent purchases from the makeup counter, usually Sephora.
Wally Safrit drives Elizabeth to high school at A.L. Brown, where she’s a sophomore planning to become a lawyer, and Wil to Cannon School. The freshman dreams of becoming a surgeon.
Their mom, usually dressed in St. John because it doesn’t wrinkle, and wearing jewelry by Tiffany or David Yurman, gifts from her husband, often rides along.
“It gives us 45 minutes together,” she said.
Late at night, while most people unwind or drift off to sleep, Safrit runs.
At 10 p.m., she climbs onto a treadmill in her walk-in closet and runs for one hour, about 5 miles.
She watches “24,” “Lost” and other dramas using the TiVo her husband gave her, which she jokes is her “most prized possession.”
Dog days
Other than her role at the N.C. Research Campus, Safrit may be most well known for rescuing dogs and performing in church.
With help from her employees and family, she’s rescued more than a dozen dogs. She’s found homes for most but still has Belle, a terrier mix who tolerates wearing tutus and sweaters to Safrit’s delight.
Belle and Murphy, a springer spaniel, occasionally accompany her to work.
“What I love about Lynne is the way she feels about animals,” said Victoria Christian, a key player at the Research Campus with Duke University.
Safrit, a hard-driving, hard-working business leader, “turns to mush around her dogs,” Christian said. “Compared to other high-powered women, she’s a bit unusual.”
Safrit was baptized and married at West Point Baptist Church, so the decision to move her family to Crossroads Church in Concord four years ago for the youth program was difficult.
And a little frightening.
Safrit, a classically trained pianist, has performed in church since she was 12. During her first rehearsal for the Crossroads praise band, someone handed her a chord sheet for a contemporary Christian rock song.
“It scared me to death,” she said.
Now, Safrit plays like a pro. At a recent rehearsal, the band attempted a new song but stopped. Something was missing.
The vocals weren’t quite right.
“I think this is a Lynne song,” someone said.
Safrit took the microphone. They tried again, and this time the melody soared, Safrit’s voice carrying it throughout the auditorium.
Just like a rock star.
Contact Emily Ford at eford@salisburypost.com or 704-797-4264.