By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
A tree and a capsule
RHMS honors late teacher with tree planting; buries time capsule to mark school's first year
IMG 9572
Scenes from Monday's ceremony at Richmond Hill Middle School. - photo by Crissie Elric
Crissie Elric
Bryan County News
Updated: May 15, 2013, 9:00 AM
Published: May 14, 2013, 11:20 PM

Monday held a bittersweet feeling for staff and students at Richmond Hill Middle School when the school celebrated the life of the late Chip Eckwall and buried a time capsule commemorating the school’s first year.
The time capsule was buried in front of a weeping willow tree planted for Eckwall, a seventh grade science teacher who died in late April.
The ceremony included comments from students, a musical performance by RHMS band members and comments from Eckwall’s fellow teachers, Sherry Oddi and John Melcher.
The two shared memories of working with Eckwall with about 100 students who gathered around the weeping willow.
Oddi remembered a project Eckwall worked on as an English-Language Arts teacher at the school. She said the project consisted of building a jabberwocky—a dragon character in “Through the Looking Glass.”
Melcher told the students he considered Eckwall a friend and noted his dedication to the students.
“I know I’m a better person for knowing him, I think that you all are better scientists, better students and better young adults for knowing him,” Melcher said. “This is not a day for us to be sad, this is a day for us to rejoice in Mr. Eckwall, Chip, and everything he brought to us.”
RHMS Principal Dr. William McGrath said there was no particular reason a weeping willow tree was chosen, but he felt the tree would represent Eckwall.
“We thought it would be something flowing in the wind, something characteristic of the person it is representing,” he said. “It’s long living, has a lot of root system, and I think he set roots in the school system when he was here as a teacher, and he has touched a lot of people in a lot of ways. I think it’s a symbol of Mr. Eckwall.”
McGrath said the day was bittersweet, but noted the beauty in the day.
“It’s summed up by a beautiful day with sunshine, it’s almost like a fall day—it’s crisp, not too humid. It’s a beautiful day,” McGrath said.

Read more in the May 15 issue of the Bryan County News.

Sign up for our E-Newsletters
Later yall, its been fun
Placeholder Image
Ted O'Neil
Updated: May 23, 2018, 6:03 PM
Published: May 23, 2018, 6:05 PM

This is among the last pieces I’ll ever write for the Bryan County News.

Friday is my last day with the paper, and come June 1 I’m headed back to my native Michigan.

I moved here in 2015 from the Great Lake State due to my wife’s job. It’s amicable, but she has since moved on to a different life in a different state, and it’s time for me to do the same.

My son Thomas, an RHHS grad as of Saturday, also is headed back to Michigan to play basketball for a small school near Ann Arbor called Concordia University. My daughter, Erin, is in law school at University of Toledo. She had already begun her college volleyball career at Lourdes University in Ohio when we moved down here and had no desire to leave the Midwest.

With both of them and the rest of my family up north, there’s no reason for me to stay here. I haven’t missed winter one bit, but I’m sure I won’t miss the sand gnats, either.

Shortly after we arrived here in 2015, I got a job in communications with a certain art school in Savannah for a few short months. It was both personally and professionally toxic and I’ll leave it at that.

In March 2016 I signed on with the Bryan County News as assistant editor and I’ve loved every minute of it. My “first” newspaper career, in the late 80s and early 90s, was great. But when I left it to work in politics and later with a free-market think tank, I never pictured myself as an ink-stained wretch again.

Like they say, never say never.

During my time here at the News, I’ve covered everything that came along. That’s one big difference between working for a weekly as opposed to a daily paper. Reporters at a daily paper have a “beat” to cover. At a weekly paper like this, you cover … life. Sports, features, government meetings, crime, fundraisers, parades, festivals, successes, failures and everything in between. Oh, and hurricanes. Two of them. I’ll take a winter blizzard over that any day.

Along the way I’ve met a lot of great people. Volunteers, business owners, pastors, students, athletes, teachers, coaches, co-workers, first responders, veterans, soldiers and yes, even some politicians.

And I learned that the same adrenalin rush from covering “breaking news” that I experienced right out of college is still just as exciting nearly 30 years later.

With as much as I’ve written about the population increase and traffic problems, at least for a few short minutes my departure means there will be one less vehicle clogging up local roads. At least until I pass three or four moving vans headed this way as I get on northbound I-95.

The hub-bub over growth here can be humorous, unintentional and ironic all at once. We often get comments on our Facebook page that go something like this: “I’ve lived here for (usually less than five years) and the growth is out of control! We need a moratorium on new construction.”

It’s like people who move into phase I of “Walden Woods” subdivision after all the trees are cleared out and then complain about trees being cut down for phase II.

Bryan County will always hold a special place in my heart and I definitely plan on visiting again someday. My hope is that my boss, Jeff Whitten (one of the best I’ve ever had), will let me continue to be part of the Pembroke Mafia Football League from afar. If the Corleone family could expand to Vegas, there’s no reason the PMFL can’t expand to Michigan.

But the main reason I want to return someday is about that traffic issue. After all, I’ll need to see it with my own eyes before I’ll believe that Highway 144 actually got widened.

Latest Obituaries