Student teaching at Oakland Elementary might have been the best thing to happen to Larry Williams in his pursuits for a second career.

After retiring from the Air Force in 2001, the Fries native got into education and student-taught at Oakland in 2004. A retirement opened up a teaching position at the school, and Williams taught fourth and fifth grade math since.

At the end of June, principal Junior Gentry retired, and Williams applied for, and was hired to fill the position. He assumed the principal’s seat earlier this month.

Having been immersed in the culture at Oakland for the past six years, Williams said he knows what to expect from the community, and vice-versa.

“This year was the year I saw my first kindergarten group leave after the fifth grade,” Williams said. “I got a chance to know and meet a lot of the parents and become familiar. I think, by and large, I have a lot of respect from the families and community and the staff here. We have an award-winning staff and one of my concerns is to not mess that up. We have great people and I want to continue that success.”

Under Gentry’s watch, Oakland was recognized as a 2009 Blue Ribbon School award winner. Williams said part of the reason the school received the honor was due to Gentry’s willingness to allow faculty and staff to play to their strengths, a philosophy he plans to keep in place.

“He was really good at letting the talent in the building do what they were best at,” Williams said. “He was the opposite of a micromanager. He let the teachers do their job and coached them in the right position to where they really excelled. His style was a factor in our awards and success here. I’m not going to upset the apple cart. One of the advantages is having the knowledge of who does what here.”

Carroll County Superintendent Dr. Greg Smith said Williams’ qualifications and familiarity with the inner workings at Oakland made him a clear front-runner among the candidates for the position.

“As a fixture of that faculty, he was a leader and that translated into a level of competence, which he certainly does possess; and confidence of him from the faculty that he can lead that school and continue the good work that is happening at Oakland Elementary School,” Smith said.

Williams received his teaching credentials through Old Dominion University and then finished Virginia Tech’s principal prep program last summer. Then, opportunity presented itself when Gentry retired.

“The timing was right, I guess. I think they interviewed 10 candidates,” he said. “They included some staff on that interview panel, which I think helped me. It was kind of like a home-field advantage.”

Williams said his time serving in the Air Force also helped pave the way for this next step in his second professional career.

“It’s different worlds, but it boils down to people. I had a lot of success there and owe a lot of my success to serving my country. It was probably the smartest thing I’ve ever done,” he said. “Getting a job here was certainly the right decision, too.”