At North Forsyth High School, Ron Jessup spends much of his day out and about -- walking the halls, poking his head into offices and classrooms.
Armed with his clipboard, he talks with students and members of the staff. When something comes up that he wants to besure to get back to later, he flips up the clipboard and writes a note to himself.
"I've never been one to sit behind a desk," Jessup said.
Today is the last day he will make his rounds with students in the halls, and, on Saturday, he will say goodbye to his final graduating class.
Come June 30, Jessup, who became North's principal in 1996, is retiring after 37 years in education. The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education has not yet chosen his successor.
When Jessup leaves, North will lose a principal who listens well and who understands his faculty, said Rebecca Sexton, the curriculum coordinator. "I think he has been very easy to work with."
When it comes to the students, Jessup likes to think of himself as someone who puts their needs first.
Over the years, Jessup, 60, has seen a lot of changes in the world of education, both as a student and as an educator.
"I have gone through segregation, and I have been a part of integration," he said.
Growing up, he went to segregated schools. After graduating from Winston-Salem State University in 1972, he became the second black teacher hired at Francisco Elementary School in Stokes County.
He spent most of his career in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools. When Reagan High School opened in 2005, it took many of North's students and teachers. It was a difficult period of transition that he handled well, said Superintendent Don Martin.
"He has lots and lots of energy," Martin said. "His contribution over the years has been really outstanding."
Jessup started life in Stokes County in the Westfield community.
"We were sharecroppers," he said. "We had about 8 acres that we worked."
They raised tobacco, vegetables, hogs, chickens and cows.
"It was a tough life," he said.
At the same time, he said, extended family and church -- Chestnut Ridge Primitive Baptist Church -- made it a rich life. Although his parents -- Howard and Ida Lou Jessup -- never graduated from high school, they made sure that their children understood the value of education.
"You realized the education was your gateway off that farm," he said.
In 1962, his parents had the opportunity to buy a house, and the family moved to Mount Airy. After that, his father went to work at Hanes Hosiery in Winston-Salem. Jessup graduated from J.J. Jones High School in Mount Airy in 1966. He went to work in a mill, and, in 1968, he married his high-school sweetheart, Pauline. They came to have two children.
When Jessup decided it was time to head to college, he chose Winston-Salem State.
After graduating, he taught social studies in Stokes and Forsyth counties. He became the assistant principal at East Forsyth in 1990. Although Jessup is glad that he moved into administration, he was sorry to leave the classroom.
"What I lost was that day-to-day classroom interaction with my students," he said.
Two of Jessup's siblings also went into education. His older brother John Jessup, now retired, was the principal at Mount Tabor High School before becoming the school system's director of personnel services. Their sister, Patsy, was a teacher assistant in Mount Airy.
After stops at Glenn as the assistant principal and with the school system's administration as the high-school instructional generalist, Jessup became the principal at North.
Once at North, he never wanted to go anywhere else. And watching his last group of students leave will be bittersweet.
"I felt like this was the school where the good Lord had placed me," he said.
■ Kim Underwood can be reached at 727-7389 or at kunderwood@wsjournal.com
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