Veteran Iowa school bus inspector retires
Owen Freese, a longtime inspector with the Iowa Department of Education, stepped down from his post on Dec. 31. He will now serve as executive director of the Iowa Pupil Transportation Association.
DES MOINES, Iowa — Industry veteran Owen Freese has retired as one of Iowa’s school bus inspectors, but he will remain involved in pupil transportation in another role.
Following his retirement from the Iowa Department of Education, which was effective on Monday, Freese will begin serving as executive director for the Iowa Pupil Transportation Association.
Freese has been with the Iowa Department of Education since 1999. It’s estimated that since then, he inspected close to 100,000 school buses.
Freese and fellow Iowa school bus inspector Verlan Vos were given the Tom Horn Memorial Award at the Iowa School Transportation Conference last summer in Des Moines. The annual honor is considered to be the most prestigious award given to members of the school transportation community in Iowa.
Prior to entering the school bus industry in 1986, Freese worked as a mechanic. He then served as the transportation director at Galva-Holstein Community Schools in Holstein, Iowa, for 12 years prior to joining the state Department of Education in 1999.
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