I became friends with Richard Simpson while teaching at Orange High School in Hillsborough, North Carolina.
Our friendship arose from daily conversations we would have in the 1990's when Richard served as Orange High’s entrance gate guard.
Richard’s wife Dolores was a teaching colleague of mine at OHS.
Following an admirable career in the United States military, Richard was semi-retired and had recently decided to run for the School Board.
On election day, I got a call from Richard, asking me if I had voted.
As it happened, this was the first election day in my life that I failed to vote - a bizarre, completely-out-of-character oversight!
Fortunately, there were five minutes before polls closed, so I flew out my front door and ran as fast as I could 2 1/2 blocks to my polling place.
Still running across my destination parking lot, I could see someone walking through the lobby of the Orange County Rec Center, a large ring-of-keys in hand.
The election official saw me dashing to cast my ballot and instead of locking the door, held it open for me.
The next day’s edition of "The News of Orange" ran the following headline: “Richard Simpson Wins School Board Seat By One Vote.”
God’s truth.
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