Greg Caudill is a retired CEO of Farmers National Bank, and he currently is on the bank’s board of directors. He has been on Centre College’s board of trustees since 2008 and is on the board of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati. Not only that, but he’s the chair of the Boyle County Industrial Foundation. Caudill is also a 1976 graduate of Danville High School, and his wife, Melissa, and children attended Danville Schools. Melissa also became a teacher for Danville Schools. Caudill shared his Danville Schools story.

Q: Tell us about your Danville Schools journey. What schools did you attend, and what’s a highlight that stands out to you?
I went to 13 schools in 12 years in several cities and states. My father was a federal government employee. It was my parents’ goal to get us back to Danville, Boyle County, because our family was there. We got here when I was between my sophomore and junior year in high school, and stayed. With Danville Schools, it was obvious this was a cut above any place else I had been, and I was fortunate we landed here when we did. Traveling around gave me appreciation for what we had here. One of the things that impressed me about the whole Danville High School experience was the camaraderie among teachers. It was just a collaborative effort to try to educate the whole person, and that to me is the cut above that I’m speaking of. It was evident two days into class.

Q: What aspects of your Danville Schools education helped mold you into the person you are today?
I think traveling gave me somewhat of an ability to make friends quickly, and I have lasting friendships from the schools I attended, including Danville High School. As far as Danville specifically, the government class I had was really good, and I ended up getting the government award that year. But that kind of helped form the thought of, you’ve got to be involved. You don’t just go to school. You don’t just go to work. There are other things going on, and sometimes you’ve got to search them out. That’s something I will remember.

Q: When you think back on your Danville Schools experience, are there specific instances or relationships that stand out to you as having had a significant impact on your success since graduating?
I’ve got a lot of friends who stayed or came back here, and I think that speaks well of the Danville community and DHS. This is a pretty neat spot, pretty neat town, and the educational community is a big part of that. We wanted to raise our kids here. We wanted our kids to go to the same schools we attended. Also, with my wife, Melissa, being a teacher for Danville Schools, we knew everybody in the school system and the administration. My middle son, Bruce, has autism, and Melissa had a key role in shaping how the district worked with students with autism. If we had been somewhere else, we probably could have muddled through, but it’s not like being here where it’s home, so that was key in Bruce’s development over time.

Q: As a product of Danville Schools, what advice would you give to a parent who was choosing an education path for their child?
Get involved. Get involved at the school level. Get involved at the civic level. With this school system being small in size, it allows involvement for everybody, and I think that’s part of our secret sauce. Also, extracurricular events or activities that you’re involved in, I think, lead you to do more civic stuff when you get out. Our school system lends itself to that pretty well as well.

Q: As a product of Danville Schools, what drives you to give back to your local school and/or district?
I think with every superintendent that has been there, I’ve basically said, “put me on your speed-dial list if you need anything. I’m ready to go.” Whether it was speaking in front of a class or, especially when I was CEO of the bank, I’d respond if they asked for the bank to be involved with events and resources. And our kids have all gone to Danville Schools, and it was just a natural thing to do, to check in on what was going on in the school and how we could help. It’s almost a duty, I think, if you successfully complete your Danville High School education, that you get involved, especially if you live here. It’s about responsibility too, because if we don’t do it, who is going to do it?