It’s the time of year again when the Edgefield County Chamber of Commerce and the Edgefield County School District join together to recognize the Citizen of the Year, Teacher of the Year and Support Staff Person of the Year.

The awards ceremony was held last evening in the Strom Thurmond High School Cafeteria. Teachers of the Year from each of the Edgefield County School as well as Support Staff Employees from all the schools were also recognized.

The welcome was given by Edgefield County Board Chairman Pat Altman and School District Board of Trustees Chairwoman Sallie Cooks, followed by a performance by the Strom Thurmond High School Beauty and The Beast Cast.

The Edgefield County Citizen of the Year award was presented to Dr. Wiley H. “Buddy” Turner by Pat Altman of Edgefield County Chamber of Commerce and Andy Livingston, 2008 Citizen of the Year.

“Dr. Turner served in family practice in Edgefield County for 40 years (house calls and all) and delivered hundreds of babies, many of them by the light from kerosene lamps,” read his nomination form. “He never lost a baby or a mother.”

He also served as company commander at The Citadel; served in the U.S. Army stationed at the Pentagon for two years (where he received a commendation for life-saving measures to a man who collapsed while getting off the bus at the Pentagon); was the physician chosen to meet Air
Force I when President Kennedy arrived from trips; and was chosen as First Strac Officer during the Cuban Crisis.

Community-wise, he is member of and past deacon of First Baptist Church of Edgefield. He received the S.C. American Medical Association’s Presidential Award as Outstanding Physican one year and was the doctor for the beginning of the Head Start Program in Edgefield County. He has also been chosen as the grand marshal for Edgefield’s Christmas Parade. He has volunteered over the years with Boy Scouts, Edgefield Community Development Association and with the Edgefield County School District. He is a past member of the Jaycees.

“I can think of no one more deserving for this award,” said Livingston. “He is an outstanding person. He is caring of his fellow man, a devout Christian, a loving husband, father and grandfather. His devotion to medicine and his patients goes above and beyond what is required.”
Dr. Turner said, “I was very surprised. I didn’t have an inkling. I appreciate this honor. I did want I wanted to do with my life—I always wanted to go into family medicine and I came back to my hometown to practice.”

Teacher of the Year and Support Staff Employee of the Year were presented by Dr. Crenshaw and Mrs. Cooks.
Steven McKinney, drama teacher at STHS, was selected as Teacher of the Year. With a total of 27 years of teaching, McKinney has devoted all of them to Strom Thurmond High School.

“I don’t have a miracle story to tell,” said McKinney. “My father was a singing preacher who introduced me to the world of music. One of my strongest desires was to become a church organist. My greatest inspiration was a dynamic minister of music at my home church.”
McKinney was trained on the piano, organ, trombone and voice as a young man and performed in every performance in his church. He didn’t realize at the time this was to become his career. He thought at first he wanted to go into the medical field. An interim pastor at his church introduced him to a visitor as someone who “would someday be a great music teacher in a school.”

This set him to thinking.

He changed his major to music education. His goal was to work with young people and maybe make a difference in their lives. One of his greatest contributions is the founding of the high school’s Show Choir and School District Fine Arts Festival. Another contribution is the creation of the reading program with the teacher cadet class with the help of an elementary school librarian. He is known for the energy and zest he brings to his job.

McKinney loves his work so much that he was once quoted as saying, “I should be paying them instead of them paying me.”

Damein Bowman, Support Staff Person of the Year from Merriwether Middle School, said, “It feels great. I appreciate the honor and the person who nominated me. It always feels good to be recognized by the school you work for and the District for the hard work you do.”