At 79, veteran bus driver has no plans to retire

Carl Fisher began driving students to school in a 1946 Dodge panel truck when he was 16 years old. Today, he is one of Pleasant Hope (Mo.) Schools' independent contractors, driving high school students to and from classes at the community college.

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October 19, 2010

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PLEASANT HOPE, Mo. — Carl Fisher has been driving a school bus for the local school district for nearly 64 years and plans to continue driving, Springfield's News-Leaderreports.

Fisher currently transports high school students to and from classes at Ozarks Technical Community College, but got his start driving a regular route in a 1946 Dodge panel truck when he was 16. His father, also a bus driver and a farmer, needed the help at the time. Fisher is still a farmer, running 90 head of beef cattle.

Drivers for Pleasant Hope Schools are independent contractors, and Fisher owns his own bus and route and carries his own insurance. Under state law, since turning 70, he has been tested each year to maintain the school bus endorsement on his CDL.

Fisher's son JC is a member of the musical group the Texas Tenors, finalists last fall in NBC's "America's Got Talent." Fisher keeps a Texas Tenors poster in his bus. (To see a photo from the News-Leader of Fisher in the driver's seat, click here.)

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