By NICK YAMASHITA
The Progress
A Clark County School District employee and bus driver celebrated her 45th work anniversary recently.
Logandale resident Susie Fly was recognized and honored for her service with a plaque presented by CCSD bus supervisor Walter Respess. The plaque was made by a fellow bus driver, Robyn Schaefermeyer of Mesquite.
“It’s hard to believe that it’s been that many years!” said Susie Fly.
Fly came to Moapa Valley in 1977 from the Southern California city of Inglewood. Her brother-in-law found property here and they wanted to get out of the city and the L.A. area.
She mentioned that her family had the unfortunate experiences of being caught in armed robberies while in California. That helped make the move easier, she said.
Fly was a Rgistered Nurse and even worked at the Emergency Room for Gardenia Memorial Hospital. But with no hospital nearby Moapa Valley, she took a job as a bus driver in 1979. In doing so, she said that she found her true passion.
“If you love what you are doing you don’t want to quit,” she said.
That love has led to 45 years of serving the children, families, schools and community of Moapa Valley.
Susie is currently the longest active employee of the CCSD. She said there was one other that had served longer but that employee had retired recently.
As for plans of her own retirement, she said there are no such plans at the moment.
“I don’t know and don’t have plans,” she said.
During the upcoming summer Fly said that she will be doing some work for her son Greg’s machine shop in West Haven, Utah. Then she will see how it goes, she said.
Her husband Greg (Sr.) retired from bus driving in 2022 and has been working and helping their son with his business. Part of the plans are to relocate the business to Moapa Valley as her son wants come back, she said.
“Whatever I do when it is time to retire, I just want to be active,” Fly said.
Fly is already really active as being fully engaged within the community and a volunteer for the local food bank at Brooke’s Good Deeds.
She is also very creative as she loves to scrapbook on the side.
She added that no doubt the future holds plans of time spent with her family of two sons and one daughter and her three grandkids.
Fly expressed gratitude to all of the community for their support and giving trust to the “mean” bus driver. She said that she remembered days when she didn’t have to write kids up to solve problems, but rather just talk to their parents.
Yes she admits that she was considered mean at times. But she said there were always reasons.
“A mean bus driver spells S-A-F-E,” she said.
However even with being considered mean sometimes, she still loved her job and always loved the kids, she said.
“The kids are the reason I stuck with it,” Fly said. “Socialization also but it was mostly because of the kids.”
