Meet longtime educator Lloyd Pugh, who helped train nearly 400 Virginia teachers: 'He prepared us'

COLONIAL HEIGHTS, Va. — When it comes to education, few have the credentials of Lloyd Pugh. His qualifications, though, aren't about certifications or diplomas but about the lives he has touched, from students to teachers.

It’s a special moment at North Elementary School In Colonial Heights, when Pugh comes into the building, greeted almost in unison by four teachers.

"Y’all still got those manuals?" Mr. Pugh asked his former student teachers.

The answer came back quick.

"We do, Mr. Pugh." 

Pugh is viewed as a rock star in the world of education.

"He taught us more than some of our college classes did," said Stephanie Bass, who is now in her 32nd year of teaching.

In all started back in the 1950s.

Pugh graduated from Petersburg High School in 1954.

In 1958, he received his college degree from Randolph Macon and immediately went into the classroom.

“I got a job teaching history at Colonial Heights High School," said Pugh. "[In] '66 they appointed me principal of the Middle School.”

Then he moved on as principal of the high school.

“The last class I graduated was 1972. I graduated 245 that night,”  Pugh said.

Pugh would remain with the Colonial Heights School System for 37 years.

"I stayed retired six months, and Longwood University called me and asked me would I become an adjunct and supervise their student teachers and I did for 23 years," Pugh said.

During those 23 years watching and helping student teachers become teachers, he supervised 396 student teachers, including four at North Elementary.

“If I need him now, I can call him and ask him for advice," North Elementary School teacher Jamie Warf said. Warf is in her 23rd year of teaching.

His dedication, his persistence, the four teachers say, set in motion careers that have lasted decades.

Lessons they learned student teaching in front of Mr. Pugh still hold true today, Warf said, starting with "the book."

"This book is my student teaching manual," Warf said.

"This is my student teaching portfolio from Longwood," adds Mackenzie Hargrave, who is now in her 25th year of teaching.

In every student teacher's book, are the notes he wrote to them, telling the good, the bad and offering suggestions on how to improve.

Notes that Hargrave said they still follow to this day.

"It’s very important information and it’s all done the right way to teach children, in the right manner, to do what’s best for the children," Hargrave said.

The personal guidance he gave has made the difference for hundreds of teachers, like Stephanie Bass, who is in her 32nd year of teaching.

"I think he prepared us, I would have to say, he’s the reason we are still here and I think he’s the reason we’re not good teachers, we are great teachers," Bass said.

I asked Lloyd Pugh one important question: What makes a good teacher?

"Over my 60 years in education, I think the really great teachers are given a gift, just like a musician or artist," Pugh said. "And it just comes out of them, and the relationship develops with kids.” 

Many of his student teachers are in classrooms across the commonwealth and Lloyd said he's proud of them.

Lloyd said he learned years ago that it wasn’t just teachers he had an impact on, when a former student approached him and shared something he didn't know.

"'When you taught me, in 11th grade, either your first or second year, I was suicidal,'" the student told Pugh. "'I was getting ready to take my life. And you said something to me in class that day, you followed up on it, and you saved my life.'"

This educator says that he believes his decision to enter the field in 1954 was the right one.

“My choice of going into education was the right one, because I had made the difference in one child's life," Pugh said.

Now at 91, he spends his days out with longtime friends, many of whom are former educators or coaches.

He still offers the same advice to new teachers, even now: "Be honest with them. Try to make the learning fun. Let them know you care about them."

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