Community honors Rex Mayfield for years of dedication
Mayfield speaks at his reception, sharing special memories of his time with RCS.
By Alison James
alison.james@fct.wpengine.com
“He has a great legacy. Rex touched a lot of lives.”
Those were words shared by former RCS superintendent Don Cox at a reception for retiring Rex Mayfield Sunday, but it was a sentiment shared by all the speakers and demonstrated by the sheer number of people who turned out to celebrate that legacy, leaving standing room only at the Board of Education office.
Mayfield announced his retirement in January after four years as RCS Superintendent and nearly 35 years in the Russellville City School System, in which he began as the agriculture teacher.
“His goal was to make the ag department the best in the state of Alabama,” recalled Cox, who was one of several speakers to honor Mayfield. “As I dealt with Rex through the years, I realized that passion, that work ethic, the desire to have the very best program, is what he’s always done in every position he has been in.”
Mayfield was honored for numerous roles Sunday, from being State Ag Teacher of the Year to being Russellville’s own “MacGyver,”
“He knew a lot about everything, and he could fix anything,” Cox said.
RCS’ Susan Hall paid homage to Mayfield’s commitment to faith, family and friends, of whom he has many.
Mayor David Grissom spoke of Mayfield as both a wonderful teacher – Mayfield recruited Grissom for the FFA – and a special friend. He shared a few lines of poetry that Mayfield incorporated into public speaking each year in the FFA. He dedicated it to Mayfield – “a true winner.”
“If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you’d like to win but think you can’t,
It’s almost a cinch you won’t.
If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost,
For out in this world we find
Success begins with a person’s will
– it’s all in the state of mind.
Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or to the faster hand,
But sooner or later the person who wins
Is the one who thinks ‘I can.’”
“We were very fortunate to be able to hire Rex. This school has been richly blessed from that day on,” said former RCS superintendent Wayne Ray. “He was such an asset to our school … He lived by example. Kids watched him and emulated him.”
In an emotional speech to his friends, family and supporters, Mayfield shared words of thanks as well as words of love for the Golden Tigers, giving credit to others rather than taking any for himself.
“The superintendent’s job is really – it’s the people who make it happen. It’s not the superintendent,” Mayfield said.
Mayfield drew on his ag history to close out his thoughts.
“An ear of corn always has an even number of rows of corn kernels around it,” Mayfield said. “Every row has at least 20 kernels … But if you got down to the last seed of corn – if there was only one seed left in the whole world, and you owned it – and you planted that one seed, and it produced a stalk of corn, and that stalk of corn produced one ear of corn, that one ear of corn would have roughly 360 grains of corn. If you planted every one of those that next year, in only seven years you would produce more corn than was grown in the world last year. I think the important thing to that is someone – (mentor) Calvin (Parmer), namely – planted a seed, and he gave a chance for that seed to grow. I appreciate that. I appreciate people who have let me be a part of their lives.”
