Local school bus driver retires after 47 years

Jun. 27—GREENSBURG — Greensburg resident Larry Weber recently retired from driving a school bus after 47 years on the job.

Webers' story is a slice of local life and a testament to the work of generations past.

"I bought a route from Larry Kitchin, bus number 11, in December of 1975," he said as he began his story.

In the '70s, and even now, local schools have bus routes they "bid out." Bus drivers who owned their own school bus would place a bid on that particular route, with the route becoming the "property" of the lowest bidder. Many school systems still use this model to save money.

And that's how Larry Weber first began driving a school bus, something he admits was never in the plans.

But's that just how life is.

"Up until two years ago, I owned my own route and school bus, but I sold the Greensburg school system my route and my bus because I knew I'd soon want to retire," he said.

Weber was not one that believed in taking a day off until something life or death came up.

Married to Rose for 34 years, Larry's father Norm Weber started driving a route when Bobby Kennedy died — 1963 it was. One day, Larry was working an office job and farming and Norm needed a sub. Knowing the route, Larry decided to help his father out.

Then another bus driver asked him to sub for them; eventually, Kitchin asked him to sub.

"I didn't like working in an office all cooped up. I couldn't stand that, especially in the summer time," he said.

Kitchin wanted out, so Larry bought the bus and the route.

He drove on and off for several years, but never sold the bus.

"It was good income and it was steady," he said.

He never really thought about the years of driving, they went by too fast.

He attended the required yearly meetings for school bus drivers and remembers when another bus driver was recognized for 50 years of service when Weber only been driving for 15.

Weber recalls thinking at the time he could do that, but didn't quite make it.

"There was the pandemic, and things change," he said.

He admits that some of the rules the government imposed on bus drivers didn't make sense to him, but he drove through 2020 and in 2021 told his wife he would be done at the end of the school year.

Weber said kids haven't changed much since his early driving days, but traffic did. With the growth of Greensburg and the new elementary school built, he had to drive the U.S. 421 route and saw a child get hit getting off a bus.

"It was terrible, just terrible, but he lived," he said.

Weber was strict. He made the kids sit down and behave while they were on his bus.

"If new kids came on the bus and started jumping the seats I'd pull over and ask them, 'Do you see other kids acting like you, jumping seats? No? Do you suppose there's a reason why?'" he said.

What did he learn over the years?

"If you're there on time every day, they get used to you being on time. I'm a person that, once I take something on, I believe in staying with it. It takes a lot of discipline to keep yourself going," he said. "I guess now that I'm retired, I don't know how I did it, but I wouldn't change it. I thought I'd seen everything, but even the last day I learned something new, and that's just how life is."

Contact Bill Rethlake at 812-651-0876 or email bill.rethlake@greensburgdailynews.com