Mike Mason has worn a lot of hats in his career, but now that he’s retired, he has what he considers to be the most important job of all: school bus driver.
It’s a far cry from the corner office, but for Mike, it’s just the next chapter in a lifetime of service to his country.
While Mike is technically retired, at 63 he still felt driven to make himself useful and give back to his community.
“I still had a mind and I still had things I was capable of doing,” he said.
His career started off in the military, where he achieved the level of captain in the Marine Corps. He later joined the FBI, working his way up to being the fourth most important leader in the entire organization.
After leaving the FBI in 2007, he became an executive at a Fortune 500 company. So when he retired, he simply couldn’t sit on his porch in Midlothian, Virginia, and do nothing. He felt compelled to keep serving, so when he saw an ad for school bus drivers, he applied.
The county officials who received his application wondered why someone so accomplished would want an entry-level job, but to Mike, there’s no such thing as an unimportant career.
There’s a nationwide shortage of school bus drivers, and the Chesterfield County Public School District is no exception. Short 125 drivers, they faced a very real problem with their ability to get kids to and from school safely. Mike takes that responsibility very seriously – just as seriously as he took his duties at the FBI.
“I think this is important work, I do,” he said. “I think in our society we need to get next to the idea that there are no unimportant jobs. I mean, what could be more important than the attention we pay to our education system?”
Not only did he step up to take a job no one else wanted, but he also donated his entire $35,000 salary to charities! We’re in awe of this humble leader who is demonstrating how to be the change he wants to see in the world.
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