He's served as general manager of Greater Hume Council since 2006 and was general manager of Culcairn Council from 1998 to 2004 until the council amalgamated, but he doesn't describe himself as a natural leader.

"Some people are born leaders and some people aren't and I think I probably fall into the category of not being a born leader," he said.

Tomorrow is Mr Pinnuck's last day before retiring and handing the reins over to incoming general manager Evelyn Arnold.

"I'd like to think that over those 22 years that I've become better, I wouldn't say that I'm a great leader by any stretch of the imagination," he said.

Greater Hume councillor Heather Wilton, who has known Mr Pinnuck for about 25 years and worked with him while he was general manager and she was mayor for 10 years, said he was incredible successful.

"That probably just demonstrates the humility of the man," she said.

"He's extremely well liked and extremely well respected throughout the local government fraternity.

"Many of his peers and colleagues turn to him for advice and for leadership and direction when they might get into a sticky spot.

"They are going to miss him very much."

Illustrating the point, as Mr Pinnuck walks into the Jindera Community Hub where an interview has been arranged, a former colleague approaches with a bottle of red wine to offer as congratulations and gratitude for his service.

"Hi Megs," he greets her with a warm smile and hug.

IN OTHER NEWS:

But it hasn't always been easy for Mr Pinnuck to hold such a high profile position.

"You get to know people personally as well as professionally and it is a bit of a juggle," he said.

"If you go to the footy on a Saturday afternoon ... it would be unusual if someone didn't call me aside to have a chat with me about some sort of council issue that may be annoying them, which you don't always really want to deal with it when you're on a weekend.

"All those communities are very passionate about their town, so trying to balance the expectations of those communities over a long period of time has certainly been challenging, but working with those small communities have also been some of the most rewards parts of the job."

Mr Pinnuck isolated the Walla Children's Service as an example.

"The Walla community lobbied long and hard to put some children's services into Walla, it took probably a decade to achieve that, but in the end the building got built," he said.

"Now it's a very valuable community resource in that town, which I think has been much needed for Walla and provides a pathway for growth in the future."

The children's service is just one of many projects completed under Mr Pinnuck's leadership, but again he doesn't inflate his success.

"There'd be some people who think I've done a pretty good job and there'd be some people who think I perhaps could have done things better," he said.

Cr Wilton said Mr Pinnuck was a "fantastic general manager".

"We are losing a person with tremendous skills, a tremendous knowledge of the local government act, tremendous recall he has for facts and figures and dates and all of those sorts of things," she said.

"When he was appointed as general manager to Greater Hume he really brought the council and the staff together, it was hard work but he saw it as a challenge to bring everyone together to work in the interests of the whole.

"He's done a very, very successful job and we've got an amalgamated council which I understand is the envy of many others in the region and across NSW."

Mr Pinnuck plans to ease into retirement with some part time work and has his sights set on travel and spending more time with family.

To read more stories, download The Border Mail news app in the Apple Store or Google Play.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: