Sixteen years after retiring from Hinds Community College, Eugene Durman Jr. is still teaching, but his students are a bit older than the ones who filled his industrial maintenance class at Hinds.

Durman is second vice president of Retired Education Personnel of Mississippi, a statewide association composed of retired teachers and other retired school employees.

“Part of my responsibility is membership,” he said. “I have to travel a lot to different units to build membership for the organization. On the state level, we have 3,500 to 4,000 members.”

REPM, he said, was formerly called The Retired Teachers Association. The name was changed because the organization was developing relationship with what is called “nonprofessional” employees, like custodians and bus drivers and staff receiving a pension (from education).

The organization serves as an advocate for retired school employees, holds workshops to keep retirees informed and to hear their concerns, develops programs to mentor workers who will soon retire, and works to support bills in the Legislature that will protect and help the retirement system.

“Mississippi’s retirement system is the third best retirement plan in the country,” he said. “We assist in watching $25.6 billion (in the system). After their first year, retirees get a 3 percent annual cost-of-living adjustment.”

Durman said he joined the Vicksburg-Warren County REPM soon after retiring.

He later became the REPM District 4 representative. “We have six districts in the State of Mississippi,” he said, “and we have six district directors. I was over 13 units, and I served in that capacity for six years. There were about 250 memberships I had to be over. District 4 covered North Mississippi, from Belzoni to Natchez. It runs parallel with the (Mississippi) river.”

During his tenure, he said, he traveled a lot to each district to find out how each was doing and to check on the membership. He met with them at regular meetings and brought information on activities in the organization.

“One of the things that was stressed to us when we graduated from college was to join our professional organizations,” he said. “When I retired, I joined my professional organization.

“I encourage all educators around the state of Mississippi to join their organization, this organization. We are an advocate for our pension plan. The reason we would like people to join is because we have a voice with the Legislature.”

A graduate of Rosa A. Temple High School and Alcorn State University, Durman attended graduate school at Auburn University and Mississippi College. He taught industrial arts at Vicksburg High School and industrial maintenance trades at Hinds. He was also a drug education specialist for the Vicksburg Warren School District, teaching in the elementary schools and was the assistant transportation supervisor.

He said he became interested in industrial arts as a child and was further influenced by William Triplett, his shop teacher at Rosa Temple, and later by instructors at Alcorn.

“I’ve always believed that students should learn a craft or a trade,” he said. “I see my former students who are working in crafts and trades and they’re making more money than I want to make.”

Besides his work with the REPM, Durman has volunteered with several agencies, serving as president of the Warren Yazoo Mental Health Board of Directors, as a member of the River City Rescue Mission Board. He is a former member of the Port City Kiwanis Club and the Culkin Water District Advisory Board.

He is a former Mississippi high school basketball official.

“I officiated at junior high, high school and junior college games; that was something,” he said.

He believes people need to get involved in their communities and volunteer in some capacity.

“I was a volunteer in the community before I retired,” he said. “I think people need to get involved and give to their communities.”

But his first love goes to the REPM.

“On the average, across the State of Mississippi, we’ve got about 161,000 retirees,” he said. “On the state level, I keep my local unit abreast on what’s going on, and then basically do email to the rest of the units.

“I’m working harder now than when I was in school,” he said.