greenvilleonline.com 7B School custodian watches over students, sta Tuesday, December 26, 2006 The Greenville News Despite disabilities, his loyalty, dedication to school unmatched, administrators say drive to school, where she arrives about 5:30 a.m. "He's got my oven cut on with my water on for my grits, the trash cans are empty. Whatever needs doing, he does it," Crisp said. Most students, who know Wilkins as "Mr. Tom," meet him when in their early years as kindergarteners.
He helps them open their milk cartons and ketchup packs. Former Campobello-Gramling principal Bill Sapp, who retired last year, hired Wilkins. Sapp remembers the day Wilkins, who had worked at a factory that had shut down, asked him whether he had a job for him at the school. "Tom Wilkins is really an institution around Sapp said. "Everybody knows him because he walks everywhere.
I knew him casually and I knew his work record and his record of being honest, and he never let me down. Not one day did he ever let me down." Sapp recalled one day when he was getting ready for school about 6 a.m., he received a phone call saying Wilkins hadn't arrived to work yet. "I couldn't get ready to leave for my phone ringing off the hook," Sapp said. "Each time another faculty member would get to work and realize Tom wasn't there, they would call me." Although the callers were different, their frantic voices spread the same message that the always punctual Wilkins hadn't yet arrived. Sapp finally arrived at the met anyone who is such an inspiration to teachers.
"Even on the weekends, on holidays, Tom is here to make sure everything is OK," she said. "That's something. For that man to walk here to check on this place, that says a lot." Second-grade teacher Jean Sims said if she needs a desk, an extra chair or other supplies, Wilkins brings them to her sometimes before she asks. "I think there's a place in that school that no one knows about where Tom pulls desks and chairs from," Sapp laughed. Emma Wilkins and Stallard said they joke that Wilkins has tiny elves hard at work somewhere in the building to make what the teachers order.
"He's invaluable to us," said June Blackwell, the school's assistant principal. school and saw Wilkins walking up the sidewalk. "He told me his power had been out, so he had overslept and that he was sorry he was late," Sapp said. "I told him everyone in Inman and Campobello was looking for him." Emma Wilkins, the media specialist, and physical education teacher Martha Stallard said Wilkins has a special way with the children. "His loyalty and dedication to this school and these students is unmatched," Emma Wilkins said.
"Despite his disabilities, he knows where every teacher in this building is and what students they have coming next, if they change classes." Emma Wilkins, who isn't related to Tom Wilkins, said in her 32 years of education, she has never He walks to school every day, even through rain and sleet, but admits he'll take an offered ride when it's snowing outside. "Oh, I've got a heavy coat," Wilkins is quick to point out. "And I will take a ride if it snows. The rest don't bother me." Wilkins, who is legally blind, is the first to arrive at the school each day around 4 a.m. He makes coffee, turns on the lights and sets up chairs and tables in the cafeteria for breakfast.
Tina Crisp, the school's cafeteria manager, said knowing the lights will be turned on and that Wilkins will be in the building reassures her on her dark morning By Lynne Shackleford Herald-Journal SPARTANBURG In his 16 years at Campobello-Gramling School, Tom Wilkins has only been late for school once. That's the day the power was out at his home, located about a mile and a half from the school, and he didn't get there until 6:30 a.m. 2Vi hours later than usual. Wilkins, a custodian at the school where more than 700 students are enrolled in pre-kinder-garten through eighth grades, knows each student by name, which bus he or she rides and when they change classes. Guitar maker's creations unique N.C.
man uses pieces of wood, string to make works of art By Jim Schlosser News Record of Greensboro GREENSBORO, N.C. Calling Bob Rigaud a "luthier" sounds badly out of tune. The word is just too high-strung, even if it really defines Rigaud. It means "guitar maker." Forget those comic caricatures. He's not an aging hippie music fanatic with shaggy hair, beard, tattoo or two, who punctuates sentences with "cool" and calls people "dude." Rigaud is clean-shaven.
His graying hair is neatly cut. His clothes resemble those worn by men of his age, 58, around house and yard. He doesn't use slang, although he can wow visitors with the jargon of guitar making. He discusses frets, necks, inlays, bridges and other guitar parts. He works in a three-room shop behind the 1930s craftsman-style house he shares with his wife and helper, Ruth Ann Rigaud.
Orville, a chubby cat named for pioneer guitar maker Orville Gibson, keeps him company at work. Rigaud views his creations as music makers and works of art. Using the finest woods and techniques learned over decades, he makes about seven guitars annually. He works on three or four at a time, taking six months or longer to finish. No two Rigauds sound alike.
He strives for what he calls "a living entity that has this thing." The "thing" only a musician knows. It's the sound and feel he or she wants. Rigaud doesn't make a loud sound himself in the guitar-making world. Many amateur musicians, who tend to buy mass-produced brands such as Gibson, Martin, Taylor and others, don't know Rigaud. Rigaud says brand instruments are "just fine," with Martins from the 1930s and 1940s fetching big No two alike: Luthier Bob Rigaud works on a parior-size guitar made, of Brazilian rosewood at his shop in High Point, N.C, Rigaud creates one-of-a-kind guitars made from exotic woods.
Below left, two custom-made guitars built by Rigaud sit in front of his collection of ukuleles. Photos by LYNN HEY The Associated Press 1 hojlseXT: AIR DlC TjrV CLEANING mm I CREMATION SOCIETY i OF SOUTH CAROLINA For the Simple Dignity of Cremation DI would like free cremation information Name 'VS'fS'B: li City III I State j.Zip Eq 328 Dupont Greenville, SC 29607 I 5 233-7334 Toll Free 1-877-322-7368 1 wuw.rrpmatinn-cr.rnm Permanent Weight Loss NO Starvine Diets Exhausting Exercise Pills Gimmicks Will Power Required Weight Program i 12 PriceExtended until 1107 I 12 Price Stop Smoking until 1107 ,220 Arlington Greenville 864-370-0388 (flt Hi Animal Oindtr fj. Jf TM- rrt.fi Merry Christmas! Dear Readers, For this Christmas Week edition of my article, I would like to pay honor to this most wonderful season of the year and also pass along some thoughts about dealing with the IRS. The people who retain me usually owe past due taxes to the IRS. This is a debt like any other debt, except that the IRS has greater collection powers than other creditors, ft also has many built in options for retiring that debt.
These two statements are very important to remember. Also, most of the Revenue Officers I deal with are very nice people who want to help the taxpayer get out of trouble. Thus, I tell all of my clients to keep their problem in perspective, especially at this time of year. Do not let your IRS problem spoil your enjoyment of Christmas, and especially do not let your problem spoil the special joy of the season for your children, spouse or other loved ones. They and you deserve to partake of the soul and mind cleansing peace and joy that Christmas is all about.
An elderly lady was in my office recently who received notice that she owed an additional $1,500 to the IRS for non reported income she swears she did not receive. She told me she was literally sick over worrying about this. I told her I could handle the problem for her and that she should put the burden on me and try to forget it until I get to the root of the problem. Whether she owes the money or not, I can take care of it in a way that will not overly stress her. Again, I hope all of you with problems, whether IRS or other legal problems, will keep them in perspective this Christmas season.
In closing, I hope you will remember the real meaning of Christmas as the celebration of Christ's birth and give to others in the spirit that He have to us. you are not of the Christian faith, I hope you will experience Christmas this year as a time of peace and tranquility. For all my readers, I hope you will share a wonderful time of joy and harmony with your family and friends this season and then let me or another professional help you with your IRS or other legal problem in the New Year. Have a wonderful Holiday Season. The Greene Law Firm 8 David Greene Attorney at Law HMcGeeSt.
Greenville, SC 29601 864-271-7940 QUE flftrtfo Cim4 Member Upstate South Carolina BBB bbb f. Edwards at a Greensboro concert. Edwards discussed an idea for an ideal electric guitar. He wondered if Rigaud could make it. "It was like John Lennon asking you to make a guitar," Rigaud recalls.
They went to Rigaud's previous shop and Rigaud wrote down what Edwards wanted. Four months later, Edwards went on a tour in Japan with the guitar. Although Rigaud specializes in acoustic guitars those that don't need an amplifier he grew up playing an electric model in bands he and fellow High Point Central classmates formed. They played frat houses, private parties and places in Myrtle Beach, S.C. A few years ago, he made an electric guitar with incredible hand carvings.
The national magazine Guitar Player gave it a photo spread. The instrument was called "The Pretzel" because of the shape of the body. Rigaud could make guitars as a youngster. When he decided to make it his life work, he and his wife moved to Phoenix in the mid-1970s. There he attended the Roberto-Venn School of Lu-thiery.
He was so good he stayed a while as an instructor. Back in Guilford County, he worked at local guitar shops while making a few guitars. He then opened his shop behind his house, specializing in guitar repair and restoration. No sign outside directs people to his shop, but customers find him. They come with guitars dating to the 19th century.
He has accumulated a collection of vintage guitars. He recalls how Fogerty wanted a 1934 Jumbo Gibson but had been outbid for one by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, an avid collector. One day a retired Cone Mills worker came to the shop to get a guitar repaired. When Rigaud opened the case, his mouth dropped. He looked down at a '34 Gibson Jumbo.
The man said he had bought it new at the Cone company store on credit for $60 during the Great Depression. Later, Fogerty called to ask, "Got anything, Bob?" When Rigaud said he had repaired a 1934 Gibson Jumbo, Fogerty, still hurting from losing to Gates and figuring he'd never encounter such a guitar, declared, "Don't mess around with me, Bob!" After Rigaud convinced him he wasn't kidding, Fogerty declared: "I got to have it. Offer him whatever it takes." At first, the old mill worker didn't want to sell. Then he said he and his wife had never taken a vacation. Besides, his hands had gone bad and he couldn't play.
Rigaud paid him handsomely. Rigaud says Fogerty uses the Jumbo in concerts and to record. Rigaud always wanted to make guitars rather than repair and restore them. But he doesn't regret those years he fixed Martins, Gibsons, Taylors and other brands. He does very little repair and restoration work now.
He wants' to devote the remainder of his career to making guitars. Prices range from $4,000 to about $10,000. He makes three sizes: jumbo, midsize and the smaller parlor guitar. naaaement6 sums today. But with a pained expression he says one could go to a factory and sample guitars coming off the assembly line.
However, "if you hear one you've heard them all." Big recording stars play those mass-made brands, but Rigaud says they don't strum one from an assembly line. Companies make them to the musician's specifications. Several big stars, however, come to Rigaud when they want work done on guitars. In one of the few stories ever written about Rigaud which appeared in the March 2002 edition of the area magazine BizLife Jeff Cook, lead guitarist for Alabama, said, "I trust him to work on anything I've got." Rigaud has also helped Nokie Edwards Don't formerly of the Ventures; John Fo-gerty Moon formerly of Creedence Clearwater Revival; and popular local musician Martha Bassett. Years ago Rigaud met Nokie Qit (Drrenuillt Nnus Protect your home this season with Liquid Ceramic.
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