‘To know him was to love him’: longtime Horry County Schools administrator dies at 57
Hero, mentor and great dad are just some of the words friends and family have used to describe Ronnie Burgess, a longtime Horry County Schools administrator who died suddenly this week.
Burgess, 57, had most recently served as assistant principal at Carolina Forest High School after previous stints as principal at Myrtle Beach High, St. James High — where he was the school’s first principal when it opened in 2003 — Socastee High and the Academy for the Arts, Science, and Technology.
“We are deeply saddened about the recent passing of Mr. Ronnie Burgess, an Assistant Principal at Carolina Forest High School,” the district said in a statement. ”Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends, and the HCS school community. He will be deeply missed.”
“To know him was to love him,” said Val Burgess, his wife of more than 35 years, who added that she’s received an outpouring supportive messages from his former students and colleagues since the news became public. He died after a cardiac arrest, likely related to medical issues stemming from a car accident in late 2019 that kept him away from work for nearly a year, she said.
Kelsey Burgess, the youngest of his three daughters, recalled that students would always approach her when she visited her father at work and tell her how lucky she was, which she already knew. She specifically mentioned a former manager of hers who told her that the support she received from Ronnie Burgess while she was in school “literally saved her life.”
The couple moved into the Myrtle Beach area from Sumter more than 20 years ago when Ronnie Burgess was offered a job to teach and coach football at Socastee High.
He played one year in the NFL after being selected by the Green Bay Packers in the 10th round of the 1985 draft. He was a graduate of Sumter High School and played defensive back at Wake Forest before doing the same in the NFL.
He stopped coaching when he became an administrator, but kept close contact with the team and was often on the sidelines during games, his wife said.
In every position he held, the students were his priority, she said, and that love he showed for them was reciprocated, according to his friends and colleagues.
Jim Baxley, who Burgess hired as his assistant principal at Myrtle Beach High about 23 years ago, recalled that one of his first acts as assistant principal was organizing a senior trip to a restaurant, and Burgess greeted every student as they got on the bus to go and even paid for students who hadn’t submitted their trip fee.
Later, when they worked side by side as assistant principals at Carolina Forest High, Baxley said the kids still loved him, even if he had to suspend them for disciplinary reasons.
“He never raised his voice and always spoke to them on their level,” Baxley said. “Kids just gravitated to him.”
Joey McKelvey, a longtime friend was never a student of Burgess, but he considered him a mentor in helping him to be a better husband, father and professional.
“Ronnie was one of the first African American leaders and role models we had ever seen in Myrtle Beach,” he said, explaining that Burgess helped set an example as a young Black for he and others in the area and showed that professional success was attainable.
“For decades, he led the men and women who held the sacred responsibility of educating, feeding and protecting our communities’ youth, many of whom are now productive members of Horry County’s infrastructure and economy,” he added.
Outside of his passion for the students, friends and family emphasized his love for his wife and daughters, singing in the car and riding his motorcycle.
“He just really love to have a good time,” Kelsey Burgess said.
This story was originally published January 4, 2021 at 6:40 PM.
