How this Portland man went from retirement to a decades-long school bus driving career

Published 4:15 pm Tuesday, March 25, 2025

Bennie London, an Arkansas native, retired at 55 years old.

Or so he thought.

After 35 years of working in management at LSG Sky Chefs, it only took a matter of weeks of being retired until he got bored.

What he didn’t expect: The next 22 years of his life would be devoted to First Student, driving school buses for Portland Public Schools.

Every morning London walked his neighborhood. That’s where he met Claudia. It was on Northeast Prescott Street and Alberta Street.

“Why don’t you go and work for First Student,” she’d tell him.

“I can’t do that. I don’t want to drive no bus. That’s not for me,” he’d said.

London filled his time, hopping on flights, taking brief trips, only to return home, putzing around looking for the next venture. Eventually his boredom inspired him to tend a garden, but it wasn’t enough.

It was time for him to go back to work he decided. The paperwork was filled out, he called and called, until he was hired in April 2003.

“I told myself, after I worked there for a couple of months, ‘This ain’t for me,’” London said of school bus driving. “Once we had the summer off, I told myself, ‘I’m not going back. I’m gonna find something else.’”

But he kept on going back.

So, why the change of heart? The children.

Over time he got to know the students on his buses. He knew when they were having a good day, and surely knew when they were having a bad one.

“It’s sort of like a family,” London said.

How’d he land in Portland?

London moved to Portland in 1967. It started as a spot for visiting aunts and uncles living locally.

They urged him to stay. “Just find a job out here and stay,” his family pleaded.

On Nov. 30, 1967, London started working at Portland International Airport. He was in charged of airline catering, ensuring food made it on the planes, was taken off, cleaned and repacked.

He managed about 100 employees with a variety of roles: equipment assembly, food preparation, washing items or loading and unloading planes.

“When I retired, I told myself I was not going to work anymore,” London said.

From planes to buses

London said his transition from planes, to retirement, to buses is a happy situation.

Each morning is something different. Children give him high fives, greet him with a, “Good morning, Mr. London,” or maybe just call him Bennie, and talk about life.

“We sort of set the tone for the kids when they get to school,” London said.

And the same goes for after school, before they return home, London said they children are often filled with energy, so he works with them to calm them down a bit.

“When all is said and done, it’s about the children,” he said. “It’s about getting them to where they need to be, and it’s our job as the drivers to get them to and from safely.”

He adheres to the safety protocols, doing what his intended job is, but has continued to make lasting impressions with his charisma on students for years.

Sometimes he’ll be grocery shopping and have students tap his shoulder, “Hey, Mr. London, do you remember me?” Once a pip squeak, now in college, still remembering their bus driver.

“The students have helped me with priorities in life. We don’t always think about the one’s taking our place, so everyday I wake up, that’s a blessing to me. These kids are our future,” London said.

At the beginning of each school year he tells the kids the same spiel:

“We got a long way to go, but we are going to respect each other. We are going to do this together and I’m going to need your help. We will get through it.”

By the time summer comes around, he asks his passengers if they remember — many do.

At the point, some have graduated, some are staying in summer school, but regardless, many of his riders come back for a final wave goodbye, a hug or a shake of his hand.

“It hits me,” London say, touching his heart.

They draw him doodles and make him tchotchkes, which he’s kept boxes of over the years. So many that his son pokes fun at him, “Dad, when are you going to get rid of all these little things?”

Never.

That’s when London said he’ll get rid of them.

At 77 years old, he chooses to start every day upbeat but people ask him how.

“When you’ve been around as long as I have, I say every day is an upbeat day,” London said. “I can’t run as hard or as fast as I used to, but I can still run. You may get to the finish line before I do, but I’m still going to get there slowly behind you. I’m like the turtle.”

He didn’t expect to stay long as a school bus driver, but now he tells people it’s been 22 years of goodness; the good days outweigh the bad ones.

“I’m at the point where If I decided to retire, I could do it. If I decided to wake up one morning and decided this is it for me, I’d feel good about it,” London said. “But I would miss it. I would miss the kids It’s all been joy.”

How was Mr. London on the school bus as a kid?

His uncle drove the bus he remembers riding, so he had no choice other than to be good.

“I remember one time, you know how kids use to make those paper balls and throw them, we had one and I drove my hand back and when I went to let it go, he was looking at me right in that mirror,” London said laughing.

“When all is said and done, it’s about the children. It’s about getting them to where they need to be, and it’s our job as the drivers to get them to and from safely.”

Bennie London, 22-year PPS bus driver