90 Toombs County Magazine
He was also part of the
crew that went back
in and fixed the hole
made by the Centennial
Olympic Park bombing.
Mark graduated in
December 1996 with a
degree in horticulture (nursery and landscaping) and went
to work with the Morrell Group as an Operations Manager.
With a team of thirteen men, they maintained landscaping
for high-end commercial properties as well as in downtown
Atlanta. It took about a year of city living to convince Mark
that there wasn’t quite enough fresh air and green grass in
the big city for his taste. When a card came from UGA that
said, “Use your degree to teach Ag education,” he decided
to go back to UGA for his masters degree in agriculture
education.
One day in class, one of his classmates mentioned a
job opening at Toombs County High School. “He had just
finished his student teaching there and said it was a great
place to work. The only reason he wasn’t applying for
the position was because there was an opening for an Ag
teacher in his hometown of Hazlehurst.”
Five people from UGA drove down to Lyons to interview
for the position. “I didn’t really come with the idea of taking
the job,” said Mark. “I’d just never done an educational
interview and thought it would be good experience.” That
was on a Friday. Monday morning, he got a call from the
principal of TCHS, Mr. Hardy, telling him that he got the
job. Slightly taken aback, he said, “Let me think about it for
a day or two.”
Mark actually still had a few classes to take, but that
wasn’t the main issue. The main issue was that he was
engaged to a flight attendant for Delta. “It was not exactly in
the plans to move south.” But something about the job felt
right. He moved to Lyons in 1999, even though it meant a
drive twice a week to Douglas at night for those final classes.
By the end of the year, he was offered a contract, which did
not go over well with the flight attendant who believed he
would certainly come to his senses and return to Atlanta at
the end of that year in Lyons. But in that year of teaching,
Mark had fallen in love with the people of Lyons. “They had
accepted me and brought me into their homes. Somebody
had me over for supper just about every night.”
As one might imagine, the engagement ended. And
just in time. Little did Mark know that falling in love
with the people of Lyons would lead to meeting the girl
of his dreams. Her name was Alexis, and she was doing
her student teaching at TCHS Mark’s first year as the Ag
teacher.
“Ms. Alice McDonald was the RVI Related Vocational
Instruction instructor at the time. She became like a mom
to me. She took me under her wing and helped me learn
the ropes.” And like any good mama, Ms. Alice wasn’t going
The Agricultural education
program helps students learn
skills they can use in the
workforce and helps them
understand the importance of
agriculture on a global level.