WALHALLA — Since his initial election to the School District of Oconee County Board of Trustees in 1982, Harry Mays Jr. has worked alongside five superintendents — three elected and two appointed — and the outgoing school board chairman feels each has made a positive contribution.

The five superintendents are James DuPre, the late James M. Brown, Buddy Herring, Valerie Truesdale and, presently, Mike Lucas. DuPre served as superintendent when Mays first joined the board and that proved to be a reunion of sorts. Mays said DuPre, whom he has known since he was 8 years old, was his basketball and baseball coach while growing up.

“I consider Jimmy one of my dear friends,” Mays said, adding, “I respect his opinion and call on him, at times, for wisdom.”

Mays said he was especially impressed with the manner in which DuPre, as superintendent, preached caution before acting on various matters.

“Jimmy would say, ‘You need to think before you do this because, when you set a precedent, everybody is going to want to do it,’” Mays recalled.

Several years following his retirement as superintendent, DuPre would rejoin the school board — this time as a representative of the Walhalla area — and reunite with Mays.

Following DuPre’s retirement as superintendent in 1988, James M. Brown assumed the position. Mays said Brown, who served in that capacity until his sudden passing in 1994, introduced the arts to Oconee County.

“Mr. Brown was an astute individual regarding the educational process, but he also incorporated the arts we have today in the county,” Mays said.

It was during this time that Mays said a director of the arts was named. Bonnie Rushlow, who is now retired and lives in Tennessee, served in that capacity for numerous years.

Following Brown’s death, longtime educator Buddy Herring, who began his teaching career in the Oakway area and spent many years in special education, took the reins. Mays said Herring and his staff, which included Operations Director Clarence Towe and Personnel Director John Lay, with Assistant Superintendent Burke Royster coming on board several years later, laid the groundwork for facilities improvements that remain today.

“Before you start building something, you’ve got to have a strong building foundation,” Mays said, adding, “Much of our building program (including the Tamassee-Salem Elementary School and Fair-Oak Elementary School, as well as new football stadiums at Seneca and Walhalla) took place under Buddy. We did a lot of building, and Clarence Towe was responsible for the quality of those buildings.”

Herring, who retired in 2003, also served as the last elected superintendent in Oconee County.

“That will be among his honors,” Mays said.

Under the leadership of Mays, and with assistance from a superintendent search firm, the district received applications and resumes from throughout the country. Eventually, Valerie Truesdale, chief instructional services officer for School District 5 in Lexington and Richland counties, was hired in May 2003 over two finalists that included Royster.

“Dr. Truesdale was hired by the board to do a job, and her job was to take us from Point A to Point B,” Mays said. “That was her assignment, and we did that, as evidenced by our test scores.”

Truesdale, Mays said, also had tremendous expertise when it came to handling difficult situations.

Mays said one of Truesdale’s major achievements was re-establishing a partnership between the school district and local businesses and industry.

In addition, Truesdale is credited with the district’s partnership with Tri-County Technical College — including the addition of a college-credit nursing program at the Hamilton Career Center.

Mays said literacy was another area that Truesdale emphasized during her four years on the job.

“The school district worked with individuals who had dropped out of school, some of them older individuals — especially those impacted by career changes like the closing of the WestPoint Stevens plant,” he said.

Mays said the school district also earned the first of two consecutive America’s Promise awards under Truesdale’s guidance.

After Truesdale departed last year, the board spent the summer seeking her successor and found that the individual they wanted had been working in the school district office the entire time. Mike Lucas, who had served as assistant superintendent for instructional services for two years, was appointed by the board in August.

“Dr. Lucas is a soft-spoken, very astute individual who understands curriculum whether he’s on his head, sideways or upside down,” Mays said. “He just gets it.”

Not only has Lucas proven to be popular with the school board, but Mays said teachers appreciate his mild-mannered approach when it comes to solving problems.

Mays, a graduate of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, who has owned a pharmacy in Fair Play since 1973, admits the district he is leaving behind today is much different than the one he joined more than a quarter of a century ago.

Many of today’s students are blessed with increased parental involvement, easier access to information through technology, new or renovated facilities conducive to a more favorable learning environment — as the result of taxpayer support — and support for education through the community.

“Education is Everybody’s Business,” Mays said, quoting a slogan often used by the school district. “I believe the vast majority of individuals feel we are doing a good job because we have very few controversies.”

While Mays admitted it will be strange to miss a school board meeting come November, he feels it will become much easier during the months that follow. Although he plans to work with the Education Foundation on next spring’s barbecue fund-raiser, the school board chairman said he would truly miss high school and adult education graduations and especially visits to elementary schools.

“When I go into those schools, you look at the faces and the wide eyes of children and you see the future,” Mays said, adding, “If you make a difference in one kid’s life, you can change the world.”