John Wright could make more money doing something else, but he’s found his calling as a custodial worker at James Simons Elementary….
Co-workers can’t imagine the school without his uplifting presence. Cafeteria manager Karen Brown has known him for 10 years, and she’s watched him develop relationships with students to help keep them out of trouble. Wright does the jobs that no one else wants to do, but he never complains.
“It’s the little things you don’t even think about,” she said. “It would be a struggle without him.”
My grandfather was a high school custodian many years ago. He was well-known with his picture displayed in the yearbook, often with some sort of comment. You see, “Pop” was the man that high school boys often got to visit in the furnace room when they misbehaved. I guess a couple of hours of shovelling coal into the massive steam boilers tended to settle one down.
I still remember William, the custodian at the school I attended for middle school. I brought him back a knife from a summer trip to Europe between 8th and 9th grade. Last time I saw him, I was in college and he was bartending at a friend’s wedding. When I went up to get two glasses of champaign for my date and myself, he gave me the whole bottle. He was a prince of a guy.