Superintendent of Pontotoc City School District Conwell Duke is saying goodbye to the schools where he received his early education and where he passed that same knowledge on to another generation of students.

He officially announced his retirement Tuesday, effective June 30, 2009.

In a letter to the district’s Board of Trustees, Duke said, “I would like to express my appreciation for your leadership and counsel during the duration of my tenure. My prayers will always be with you and the school district as you continue to guide the district to a higher level of success.”

Duke is a product of the Pontotoc schools that he has led for the past five years. After service in Vietnam in the 1960s, he graduated from Mississippi Valley State University. After working at Pennsylvania Tire Company (now Cooper Tire Company), he began teaching in 1975.

Duke taught eight years in Pontotoc’s elementary school before becoming its assistant principal and then principal. He developed the school’s first kindergarten class.

After 10 years as Junior High Principal, he became assistant superintendent and Federal Programs Coordinator under Dr. Charles Harrison, former superintendent. He became the district’s superintendent in 2003 after the departure of Dr. Susan Purser, who accepted a position in North Carolina.

“As I depart the district, my only hope is that I am leaving the Pontotoc City School District in a better position than it was when I was hired 34 years ago,” Duke said.

He added his wife, Bobbie, has often said he was married to the school district instead of her. “She knows that my life has been devoted to bringing out the best in every student in the district,” he wrote in his letter to the Board.

The Dukes have two children, Van Elizabeth Ross, who is a school principal in Nettleton, and Dr. Maurice Duke, a research scientist in San Diego, California.

He plans to spend more quality time with his 8-year-old grandson, Sherman, and to travel around the United States. And, he will have more time for his hobby of restoring old automobiles.