Behind the wheel

Many students at Chapel Hill High School ride the bus home after class - at 17, Vance Riggsbee, began driving a school bus.

At $1.60 an hour, it was a good job for a student, getting Riggsbee to and from school and paying him a decent wage to boot.

Riggsbee has driven for more than 30 years for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, maintaining a perfect record; earlier this month he was named the district's employee of the month.

"This is the culmination of a lot of things" said assistant superintendent for support services Steve Scroggs, who presented the honor to Riggsbee at the Sept. 1 city schools board of education meeting.

Riggsbee, he said, "has got the charm and values that we're trying to teach our kids."

Early mornings and late afternoons of yellow buses, screaming children and squeaking brakes might seem like a lot for one person to take. But for Riggsbee, 50, it's been a 32-year labor of love.

"You know, I don't even see a hard part about it," he said.

Every day Riggsbee makes the rounds of Chapel Hill and East Chapel Hill high schools, Phillips Middle School and Rashkis Elementary School with the same dedication that has gotten him a safe driver commendation every year he has been on the job.

"I'm not concerned about me," he said. "I'm concerned about other people around me."

He's learned the names of all the elementary school kids on his route, and many of them have come to adore him.

Once, he recalled, a set of triplets on one of his routes were getting on his bus to go home one day and were surprised to see a substitute behind the wheel instead of Riggsbee.

Riggsbee, who had taken the day off, said he later found out from their parents that they refused to get on the bus.

"They just love you to death," he said. "They really appreciate it, you know."

Most of all, though, Riggsbee has been a constant presence in the school district he once attended, growing up there and then watching it grow throughout three decades.

Mary Lin Truelove, director of transportation for the school district, said many of his co-workers have come to admire him.

"They love him," she said. "They look up to him."

After graduating in 1975 from Chapel Hill High, Riggsbee took a year off from driving the bus to work at the Carolina Inn.

A few years later, Riggsbee met his future wife, Lewella, and eventually had three children with her: Myranda, 24; Cassandra, 22; and Annie, 19.

He continued working for the district and the Carolina Inn until the 1990s.

Riggsbee later got a job at the Chapel Hill Tire Car Care Center on West Franklin Street, all the while continuing his morning and afternoon routes.

In those years, Riggsbee said, he saw the kids become a little less disciplined - though they're definitely much smarter now.

"I think even the younger kids are smarter than they used to be," he said.

After spending so many years driving children around, dealing with the occasional rabble-rouser, one might wonder why Riggsbee has stuck with the job so long.

Truelove said she can't imagine Riggsbee retiring.

"He's not the kind of guy I see in a retiring role," she said. "If he retired, he'd probably come back and drive a bus."

Riggsbee, humbly, seemed to shrug off the question.

"I really don't know why," he said. "I'm just paying the bills."

 

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.