Students involved in sports, band and various field trips who use a bus to travel have had 77 year-old David Frye as a bus driver. Frye has been driving bus for the high school for three years.

“I started driving because of the various sports teams needing transport to their opponents. I mainly drive the track team. I like it because I can stay and watch them run,” Frye said.

Along with transporting sports teams, Frye drives students to field trips, but very few are overnight. When the trips are more than a day and involve an overnight stay, Frye stays with the group for the entire trip. Two examples of this are the STEM trips to the Chesapeake Bay and Green Bank Observatory.

“[Staying overnight] is better than driving all the way back to Harrisonburg, that’s for sure. Most of the trip I try and stay with the group and participate in the activities, but to be honest, most of it is beyond me. When I went to the Chesapeake, I understood learning about the watershed, but in Green Bank, the material is beyond me. I enjoyed the Green Bank trip but I enjoyed Chesapeake Bay a little more because I could follow it better,” Frye said.

In one case, Frye drove JROTC down to Buena Vista, but decided to not stay the night and drive all the way back.

“I should have stayed with them instead of driving the hour and a half drive back. That is why I prefer to stay the night if it is a long drive back,” Frye said.

During the three years Frye has been driving, he has enjoyed transporting various students.

“I love driving because it gives me the opportunity to go different places and see different things. When I sit in, I don’t follow what they’re doing a lot of the time, but I see the participation and the way you guys work together. I also enjoy watching these kids grow up because I drive many of the same students all the years I have been driving,” Frye said.

Before driving bus, Frye worked as a postal employee for 41 years in the Washington D.C area. He traveled on a postal train up and down the east coast for many of those 41 years.

“It was interesting because I love to travel, and I was able to go to places like North Carolina and New York City. It was a different lifestyle compared to now because today, you have computers and not many postal railways still exist,” Frye said.

Frye retired in 2003 from his postal job before driving a bus. Since 2013, Frye has been busy driving and transporting students from the high school to where they need to be. He hopes to continue driving for the upcoming years.