The couple have two children and three grandchildren: a daughter, Karen Cherry, who lives in Bel Air with husband Stephen and their daughters, Ryann Marchetti, 12, and Ella Cherry, 17 months; and a son, Jeffery Story, who lives in Owings Mills with wife Lauren and their son, Nathan, 19 months.
He and Virginia host the entire brood every Sunday for dinner -- she cooks and he assists, he said -- a get-together he said he always looks forward to.
In the spare time that he said he doesn't really have, one of his hobbies is HO scale model railroading. But he said he hasn't had enough time, for nearly a year, to devote to tinkering with the 16-foot-by-16-foot layout in the basement.
He also collects golf balls emblazoned with logos of county businesses and organizations, beer steins, stamps, and coins -- all pastimes he said he values as "mindless escapes" from his hectic schedule.
"What drives me on the job is the competitive nature of my work, which is focused on winning investment decisions for our community," Story said.
"Investment in the quality of life here starts with businesses, which shore up the tax base," he added. "In economic development, the measure of my worth is whether I am creating jobs and whether people are benefiting from my efforts. The barometer against which I measure success is this: Have I helped improve the human condition?"
The short answer to that is he believes he has. While stating that the county is not immune to the current national economic downturn, he added, "Howard County is slower going into a recession and faster coming out of one," due in part to the number of companies here that support the federal government.
"We have an economic development plan and we're following it," Story said. "Nobody has ever repealed the old bromide, `Location, location, location,' and Howard County has that covered."
