My name is William L. Poteat, but I have always been Bill. I am 67 years old and was born on Aug. 26, 1955 at the old Grace Hospital, located where CoMMA now stands. I have been in the professional workforce for 47 years, including 18 years as a high school teacher of literature, writing, and speech in the Burke County Public Schools. I now serve as editor for The Paper, a newly launched, all-local weekly newspaper serving Burke County. 

I recognize that being born a white male into a stable family has proven to be a huge advantage to me. Although I basically had to finance my own higher education, holding a degree from one of the most respected universities in the Southeast – UNC-Chapel Hill – has served to open both societal and professional doors for me. Academically, I did just fine, making the Dean’s List most of my semesters. Socially, however, I never felt like I fit. Money was the lubricant for much of the social life in Chapel Hill, and I simply did not have the required currency. I am in no way ashamed of my background – my parents are true heroes to me – and I feel it has given me empathy for the underdog, both as a teacher and as a newspaper editor.

In the spring of 1999 I was unexpectedly forced out of my job after more than 19 years of service. At the age of 43, I was unemployed, with no health insurance, for the first time in my life. Talk about a shock. My departure from the career I loved left me depressed and pretty aimless for a short while. By luck, I had developed a friendship with an assistant superintendent with the Burke County Schools. He asked if I had ever considered teaching as a career. My answer was a resounding “No!” Yet less than two months later, I found myself a teacher of English at East Burke High School. Over the next 18 years I was fortunate enough to work with hundreds of students, many of whom I still count as friends. I thought it important that my classroom be a place of safety, of acceptance, and of positivity where each student had the chance to reach her or his full potential. 

Like so many other folks, I think my hardest challenge is finding balance in life. All my life, I have placed more emphasis on work than I should, devoting too many hours and too much energy to it, often to the detriment of my family life and my own health. You’d think by age 67 a man would have it all figured out, but not me. [What are my] passions in my community? At the most basic level, I would say fairness, acceptance, and economic opportunity for everyone. Directly tied to those is a passion for public education, both at the primary and secondary levels. These passions have been informed mainly by my 18 years in public education. I have witnessed the magic of young minds coming alive to new ideas and working to go beyond the lives their parents knew.