Ray Wheless

After reading and enjoying so many of your profiles, I am finally getting back to working on my own. I absolutely cannot believe that we graduated from high school 40 years ago!! Maybe this is because I participated in so many graduations over the last 35 years as a Senior Sponsor and Counselor of OCHS, that I forgot about my own.

Most of you knew that I planned to become a teacher. With such great teachers as we had (Mrs. Anne Holloman, Mrs. Joan Moncrief, Ms. Betty Jo Veale(Pryor), Mrs. Martha Moore, Mrs. Sonya Armour, Mrs. Marguerite Crenshaw, and I could go on and on) and such administrative guidance as we had from Mrs. Myrt Carey and Mrs. Julia Fleming, I felt I had a solid educational foundation when I entered The University of Georgia in the Fall of 1968. I graduated in 1972 with a BSEd in Science Education and a minor in Mathematics Education.

I returned to OCHS in the Fall of 1972 as a Science Teacher, with Mr. Bob Houser as my Principal. I knew that I eventually wanted to become a Counselor. I was selected along with about 20 other teachers in the State of Georgia to participate in a Symposium that would concentrate on Career Education and Career Planning in the Middle and High Schools of Georgia. This course work also led to a Masters Degree in Counseling. I earned an MEd in Counseling in 1977. I became the OCHS Counselor and remained in this position until I retired in 2005.

During these decades, I also taught Adult Basic Education, GED Preparation, and taught Biology and Chemistry for Truett-McConnell College at night. I also was Director of the Evening School Program in Madison County.

I would be remiss if I did not stop here and say how much I enjoyed working with many of your children. If I were to begin calling names, I would forget someone, so just know that if I had the privilege to teach/counsel your children, I consider it to have been a pleasure. Many of them were like my very own.

For the past two years I have been an Assistant Manager at Oglethorpe Finance, a branch of Middle Georgia Management Services, Inc.

I want to use this space to mention a picture that I had in my office. It shows a young boy looking across a body of water, standing with his back to you and his hands in his back pockets. The caption goes something like this:

PRIORITIES...

"A Hundred Years From Now It Will Not Matter What My Bank Account Was, The Sort Of House I Lived In, Or The Kind of Car I Drove...But The World May Be Different Because I Was Important In The Life Of A Child"

Some of you may have already seen or heard this. This is the way I felt about my job and the countless young people I worked with over the years.

I always thought that the Lord had entrusted me with these blessings from Him and that I should try to make a positive influence on them.

Some of my best lessons were learned from working with young people. Some of my greatest achievements were earned by taking up time with them.