Friends and former co-workers of retired Warren Central High School principal Mack Douglas remembered him as an administrator who cared about the people he supervised and the students he worked with.

Douglas died Oct. 31 after he was struck by a car while he and his wife were riding bicycles in Leake County.

A native of Leake County, Douglas went to work for the school district in 1978, left to teach in the Cleveland public schools, and returned to Vicksburg in 1982 to teach at Vicksburg Junior High School, where he coached football and track and assisted with the high school teams.

He became assistant principal at Warren Central in 1987, the same year the Warren County Public Schools and Vicksburg Municipal Separate School District consolidated. He was named Warren Central principal in 1995 and served until 2006.

In a 2006 The Vicksburg Post article about his retirement, Douglas said the most rewarding part of his job had been having former students come back as successful adults.

“Mack Douglas was a great leader and so supportive always of the faculty, the staff,” said Lucy Young, who taught at Warren Central under Douglas. “He had a caring heart for the students; I was just one of many who was blessed to work under his leadership.

“He contributed in so many ways, not just in education, but through the church and through the prison ministry, that he continued when he retired to Leakesville. He was just one of those people who had a great impact on everyone and everything he participated in.”

Douglas, who was a member of Hawkins United Methodist Church, “Was first of all a Christian,” said Agnes Lyles, who was an assistant principal at Warren Central.

“He was a true educator. He was extremely truthful, he was fair, dedicated; he was interested in the wellbeing of all the children. He showed great compassion, not only for the students, but for the teachers and administrators and the community in general.

“He was a person that whatever he committed to, he gave it his all.”

Lyles said Douglas was very professional and believed in every body.

“He believed every child, regardless of who or where they came from, whoever they were, they could succeed, and he did his best to make sure that happened. He will be truly missed.”

Jackie Loyacono, who was a guidance counselor at Warren Central, said Douglas “was one of the best principals I ever worked with. He ran a very tight ship and had a very good school; academics were very important to him. He was so fair, so easy to work with. I loved him; he was precious.”

Former Vicksburg Warren Superintendent of Schools Donald Oakes was Warren Central principal when Douglas was assistant principal.

Douglas, he said, “believed in education and really helped a lot of kids. He loved his family and was a good family man, and supported the faculty and the staff.

“We have lost a good man,” he said. He said Vicksburg residents chartered a bus to go to Douglas’ visitation. “That should tell you what kind of a man he was.”