For many school bus drivers, the greatest part of the job is the connection they develop with the students they transport every day of the school year. Drivers watch students go through school and graduate and hope they leave a positive impact on the lives of their passengers.
One school bus driver can rest assured he left a notable impact on one of her former passengers, as the high school senior chose her former bus driver to present her diploma at the student’s graduation, The Columbus Dispatch reports.
Seniors at Worthington Kilbourne High School were told to choose a person who had influenced them to award their diplomas, and Emily Bowen decided the best person to deliver her diploma was school bus driver Glenn Dickey, now 83. According to the newspaper, Bowen hadn’t seen Dickey since eight years ago when Bowen was just an elementary school student at Liberty Elementary School.
Bowen said her mother was the one who initially suggested she choose Dickey for the role in the ceremony, and after some thought she agreed because she realized school bus drivers “are an important part of the school system, even though they’re not recognized.”
She also said that Dickey treated everyone with respect and has continued to be an inspiration on her.
“You have 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the afternoon,” Emily Bowen told The Columbus Dispatch. “Seeing how he treated everyone with respect was influential not only on that day but later in life.”
Dickey drove final routes last week and believes there couldn’t be a greater reward to cap his driving career.
“I felt very honored to be able to do that, especially with what she went through to locate me,” he said.
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