Sometime back in the early- to mid-1980s when I was doing a lot of guitar teaching, I had a father and son taking lessons together from me, which was a pretty interesting arrangement.

As I recall they both had the same name: Gerald Wilson.

The younger Gerald Wilson, who must have been 10 or 12 at the time, grew up to be the Pickens County administrator!

Now, I can’t claim much credit for grooming him for this high office, but I knew he had potential even then. For one thing, to be willing to take guitar lessons with your daddy — that’s pretty rare. And he was always very polite and attentive, and smart. Just the nicest little guy in the world.

And he’s still one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet — although not so little anymore.

He came over to me at a county council meeting about five years ago when I started covering Pickens County for the daily newspaper from which I recently retired and told me who he was. Of course, I never would have recognized him, but he knew me. He was heading up the public works department then, I believe.

“If I can ever do anything for you, let me know,” he said.

He still says that every time I see him — and I guess he probably says it to everybody. But you know, I believe he means it.

Maybe that’s why, at the tender age of 48 (but with 31 years in the state retirement system) he has decided to retire. He’s just too nice

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