As a student at The John Carroll School, Paula Etting disdained public office.

“I was the class nerd, the girl with brown hair and glasses who always had her homework done,” she said. Who’d have thought the quiet, bookish Etting, valedictorian of the Class of 1977, would wind up as mayor of Harford County’s bustling hub?

“I want to have a say in where Bel Air is going,” said the onetime attorney and current town commissioner. “As it grows and changes, we need to respect and honor our past and keep the town family-friendly.”

Etting, 65, attended The Johns Hopkins University before earning a post-graduate degree at the University of Maryland School of Law. She worked 27 years in the Harford County Law Department before turning to politics in 2021.

Here are three things you may not know about Etting:

She’s an able do-it-yourselfer.

“I am handy. I can install faucets and shower heads, scrape wallpaper and change toilet flappers and the lock on the front door. I put up our mailbox. My husband doesn’t like to do that stuff, but it gives me a nice feeling of accomplishment. I mean, when you cook a great meal, all that’s left are the dirty dishes — but change a shower head, and it’ll be there for years.”

Sewing keeps the mayor humming.

“I like making something out of a flat piece of fabric; it uses another side of my brain. I made my own clothes when I was pregnant, and now, I’m the go-to for our grandchildren whenever a stuffed animal loses an arm. They say, ‘This is broken and needs to go to NaNa’s.’

“The sound of a sewing machine is so relaxing. I made Halloween costumes for our kids, from Batman to a medieval princess. Our son liked his dinosaur costume so much that, at five [years old], he’d come home and put it on and sit there, reading a book.”

Her diplomas did her parents proud.

“I was the first in my family to graduate from college. Neither of my parents had that opportunity — my dad was one of eight Irish kids and had to leave school to work — but they valued education. In eighth grade, my father bought me a Texas instrument calculator for $150, a lot of money then. But he knew I’d need it for high school.

“An uncle said that I’d never finish college, that I’d get my ‘Mrs. degree’ instead; that was the opinion of people in his generation. But I was internally driven, and my parents fed on that.”

Three things you may not know about Bel Air Mayor Paula Etting for Harford Magazine. (Kenneth K. Lam/Staff)