Randy Bradford never realized his high school dream of a career in radio.

Instead, this week, he will close the book on 47 years in public education when he retires as director of transportation and building maintenance at Centerburg Local Schools, a position he has held for the last eight years. Earlier he served in the same capacity at Mount Vernon City Schools and Mansfield City Schools.

Bradford’s work twice earned statewide honors. In 2001, he was named Transportation Director of the Year by the Ohio Association of Pupil Transportation. The following year he was recognized as Outstanding Transportation Director of the Year by the Ohio Association of School Business Officials.

“Randy has been a blessing to work with,” said Centerburg Superintendent Ryan Gallwitz. “He’s a down-to-earth guy who genuinely cares about the students and the success of the school district. We will miss his experience and the 47 years of stories working in education. I wish him the best in retirement.”

As a 1977 graduating senior at Ridgewood Local Schools in eastern Coshocton County, Bradford planned to major in communications at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) and enter the world of radio. That is until the day he took a pickup ride with the superintendent of the Peabody Coal Company where Bradford’s father worked.

“He asked me to ride along as he inspected the company’s surface mining operations,” Bradford said. “He didn’t say so, but I think he was trying to interest me, as a young man, in a job with the company, maybe in an apprenticeship.”

That didn’t happen, but the massive mining equipment that Bradford saw in the field helped to trigger a change in his career goal. He had always enjoyed working with his hands and he had a knack for fixing things.

“I always looked for the wrong in something to make it right,” he said.

Bradford scrapped his plan to attend BGSU and enrolled, instead, at Lincoln Technical Institute in Indianapolis, where he earned certification in automotive and diesel truck technology.

Diploma in hand, he was hired immediately by his home district to serve as Ridgewood’s transportation supervisor and bus mechanic. He also drove a bus route.

“There were no radios or cell phones in those days and houses were often two or three miles apart in the strip mining areas. A road might be paved for half a mile then it was dirt the rest of the way,” Bradford recalled. “If the bus broke down, the driver would write down the problem, give it to the oldest boy and tell him to take it to the nearest house and have them call the school for help.”

For 13 years he managed a fleet of 21 buses that traveled 1,800 miles daily and supervised a staff of 20.

In 1991, Bradford was appointed director of transportation and building maintenance at Mount Vernon. He converted the predominately gas-powered fleet of 29 buses to all diesel and had a transportation audit in 2000 that saved more than $600,000.

Two of his major achievements in his 16 years at Mount Vernon were serving as construction manager for the new middle school, an $11 million project in 1996, and Twin Oak Elementary School, an $8 million project in 2004.

Bradford’s name is among those on the plaque at the entrance to Twin Oak but one element of his legacy lies buried beneath the school.

“I was on-site during construction one day when my boots got stuck deeply in the mud,” he said, laughing. “I pulled one of them loose but couldn’t free the other one. It’s still there, buried beneath the concrete floor of the cafeteria.”

Bradford left Mount Vernon in 2007 to begin a three-year tenure as director of operations and business affairs at Mansfield City Schools, where he oversaw transportation, building maintenance and food service.

His telecommunications audit recovered $114,819 in billing errors – including charges for phone lines to buildings that had been demolished – and $22,203 in monthly savings. He implemented a five-year roof repair and replacement plan, a $300,000 project in 2008 and $270,000 the following year, while managing a $300,000 swimming pool renovation at Malabar Middle School.

He also supervised the relocation of district administrative offices from Mansfield Senior High School to the former Raemelton Elementary building.

Bradford retired from full-time administrative work in 2010, but returned to Mount Vernon to serve as a substitute bus driver while starting a handyman service, especially for senior citizens.

“All too often seniors were being charged too much for handyman-type home repairs,” he said. “I enjoyed the work and the opportunity to save them money. The only problem was that, as a sub bus driver, I often had to leave a job site to respond to a call to drive a bus. That led to a decision to become a full-time bus driver with fixed hours so I could better manage my handyman projects.”

In 2016, Bradford returned to a familiar role, this time as director of transportation and maintenance at Centerburg. His last day in the office was this past week as he turned his duties over to Dave McDowell.

“Some of the best people I have ever worked with are here at Centerburg,” Bradford said. “It’s a Mayberry atmosphere, one that I will miss.”

His immediate plans? A lot of fishing and “spending quality time” with a granddaughter, 4, and a grandson, 2.

“I often look back on that day when I rode with the coal company superintendent,” he said. “It changed my life. Would I have finished at Bowling Green? Would even I have had a career in radio? Would I have enjoyed it? I believe things turned out like they were supposed to.

“Throughout my career in education, my goal always was to make things better for kids. I hope I was able to do that,” he said.