Mother, daughter set to retire together with 95 years of combined state service

When Lucille Ward started her career in 1963, she never dreamed she would one day retire alongside with her daughter, Angela Lamb. In fact, her daughter hadn’t even been born yet.

With 60 years of service to the State of North Carolina as a schoolteacher, primarily for the Public Schools of Robeson County, Ward has served as much as two fully vested state employees, who are eligible to retire after 30 years of service.

“I never was one of those who said that I was going to retire after 30 years,” Ward said who will be officially retired on June 30. “In fact, I didn’t want to.”

“I never said that either,” her daughter Angela Lamb said, who will be retiring with 35 years of service, 19 of which she spent teaching English at Robeson Community College. Her last day at RCC will be May 10.

Ward did try to retire a few times, four times in fact.

“I kept coming back, I could not let go,” said Ward. “The last time was miserable, I rescinded my letter, but this is it. I really don’t want to, but it is time. I know I will be at a loss when the middle of August arrives.”

After graduating from Pembroke State University or UNCP, Ward went to the Women’s College in Greensboro, what is now UNCG to get her teaching credentials. Shortly after, she got married to her husband Ralph, whom she met while in college. Her first teaching opportunity was at Garland High School in Sampson County. She taught Home Economics until she became pregnant with Angela.

“Back then female teachers could not teach while pregnant, they did not renew my contract,” Ward said. “So, I came back to Robeson County.”

From there, she went on to teach at Orrum High School because, “they needed an English teacher, so the principal hired me to sub until I could go to work.”

She stayed there for 25 years until Orrum merged with Fairmont High School during the consolidation of the system in 1991. She’s been at Fairmont ever since.

“I hope I have left an impression and made a difference,” Ward said of her students, many of which have already retired themselves.

“She’s on her fourth generation of students,” Lamb said of her mother with pride.

There are many students that stick out in Ward’s mind, many of which she can still remember where they sat in class. She even taught her daughter when she worked at Orrum High School.

One of her current students recently told her, “Mrs. Ward, you taught my Grandma,” and of course, she remembered who she was, saying she often recognizes names and faces.

“It makes me proud… many of my students have done well,” Ward said. “They became preachers, doctors, nurses, business executives, lawyers, teachers, accountants.”

And, she says, “Many are no longer here.”

 “During all these years I’ve lost parents, siblings, my husband, some of my students, but I have gained friends, close friends,” Ward said. “Of course, dying is a part of living.”

Lamb understands that aspect of life as well, having also lost students along the way.

“There was a boy that sat in the first desk in the middle row of my class,” Lamb said. “I noticed the class was extremely quiet. His best friend told me that he wouldn’t be back, that he had been killed over the weekend…. You never forget things like that.”

Another instance that Lamb remembers as she reflects on the past is when she noticed a student with his head down on the desk.

“It was first period and it wasn’t like him to have his head down, I knew something was wrong,” Lamb said. “I tried to wake him but I couldn’t, so I told the kids to run to get help.”

It turns out the student suffered from a blood clot in his brain, and because of Lamb’s quick thinking, he survived.

“It stands out to me because something in my intuition told me to go wake him up and to not let him sleep,” Lamb said.

Although Lamb has since lost touch with the student, she says he hopes he is still doing well.

“You become a second mother to the students,” Lamb said. “You truly are a parent in many ways, many of the students are seeking affection and attention, even at the community college level, many need encouragement and a pat on the back.”

Lamb never thought she would end up in a classroom.

“I honestly didn’t want to teach,” Lamb said.

“She said she ‘never’ wanted to teach,” her mother Lucille corrected her as she laughed. “As I would sit grading papers, Angie would sit beside me saying, ‘I know one thing, I will never be an English teacher.”

“My son Chaz said the same thing, but now he’s teaching too,” said Lamb. 

Lamb attended Wingate University, majoring in journalism with hopes of one day becoming a reporter. But she says “statistics” got in the way, a class she didn’t care for, so she decided to switch over to English and transferred to Pembroke State University, where she graduated with a bachelor’s and master’s in English.

Even though she didn’t know it at the time, in the first class she taught, she was meeting a future co-worker, Sherry Lofton.

“Sherry has really blossomed,” said Lamb. “I have loved getting to work with her over the last few years.”

Lamb also has many other students turned co-workers at Robeson Community College – Courtney Jacobs, Kevin Hunt, Percell Hunt, Jessie Hunt, Mary Williams, Christine Elliott, Joseph Bartlack, Sara Britt and the list could go on and on and on.

“I have the best co-workers, I will miss them all,” Lamb said. “I have loved teaching my students, but I have also loved working with the faculty and staff… I can say that within the English and Humanities Department, I have the best co-workers you could ask for.”

Courtney Jacobs also worked alongside Mrs. Ward, as an English teacher at Fairmont before gaining employment at Robeson Community College.

Ward taught Jacob’s two sons, showing just how the connections within Robeson County between Ward and Lamb are endless and how intertwined the two have become as pillars within the community they have served.

The two have been a staple in education, often consulting each other on best practices.

“Angie has helped me tremendously,” Ward said.

“We’ve always been teaching and sharing ideas,” said Lamb. “We are like best friends, we share ideas, read novels, and we both have that joy for literature.”

“She would read the page before I could turn it,” Ward said of her daughter when she was little. “She always loved reading.”

Some of their favorite novels include Gone with the Wind, Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, Les Misérables, Beowulf, The Crucible, A Raisin in the Sun, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and of course, Shakespeare classics like MacBeth and Hamlet.

“I love Gone with the Wind, but I never taught it,” Ward said with regret.

Ward used a variety of multimedia to help share her love of literature with her students.

“I’ve used it all,” Ward said. “Filmstrips, 18mm, 16mm, beta tape, VHS, CD, DVD’s… I still use some stuff from filmstrips on DVDs.”

“I had to learn a lot of technology, the first time I was in front of a computer was in the 80s,” Ward said. “Everything started to get computerized.”

 “We were always looking for the best possible way to teach so students could learn,” Ward said. “It was challenging, the students knew more than I did.”

“We went from overhead projectors and chalkboards to dry-erase boards,” Lamb said. “Sometimes it’s hard, and once you learn, things change again and you have to start all over.”

“But writing never changes,” Ward said. “The style might change, but not the foundations.” 

Through it all, Ward says she has sent many of her students in the direction of Robeson Community College so they could further their education and get a degree. Many would often land in Lamb’s classroom, not knowing they had just graduated from her mother’s English class.

“Once they find out they say, ‘I’m glad I said nice things about her,” Lamb said with a smile. “I always ask who they had for English, especially if they are coming from Fairmont.”

With retirement close by, the two have some advice for the teachers that are coming behind them to educate future generations.

“You have to make the content as relevant as possible, so they’ll be interested, and so they’ll want to write,” said Lamb. “Hold on to high expectations and try to support students in what they are interested in so they can become productive citizens in the workplace and give back to the community.” 

“You have to help students see success in what they do and help them to understand what their best pathway is,” said Lamb. “Students need to have an option B in case Option A doesn’t work out.”

“Don’t smile until Christmas, it lets them know you mean business…” Ward said, who believes in being ‘candid, truthful, and honest.’

The two have a lot planned in the days and months ahead.

“It’s a special time,” Lamb said. “We hope to do things together that we haven’t always been able to do with our conflicting schedules… it’s happy and sad at the same time.”

Lamb says she’s received a lot of job offers since announcing her retirement but is looking forward to taking time off to spend with her family and for opportunities to travel more with her husband Tommy.

“I might come back and apply for a degree program at RCC and try something different,” Lamb said with a smile. “God hasn’t laid it all out for me yet.”

As for Mrs. Ward?

“I’ve already partied,” said Ward, who went on a trip to Las Vegas with her daughter during Spring Break in March.

“I can’t go work at Walmart because I would be fired in a day,” she said. “Everyone knows me and would want to stop and talk to me.”

“I’ll adjust.”

 

 

 

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