CORINTH – Ken Tate was just 17 and a high school senior when he first got behind the wheel of a school bus.

Wednesday marked the 50th anniversary of Tate picking up and delivering students to and from school for his family-owned busing business.

“My dad started in 1939. He started with a panel truck and covered wagon for the mud season,” he said. “My dad drove 37 years and I told him I was going to beat him but, of course, he started later than me. I did want to make 50 years.”

On Sept. 6, 1953, Tate drove his first group of students. On Sept. 6, 2003, he’ll be celebrating his 67th birthday.

In the beginning, the bus service picked up between 15 and 20 students in Exeter. Nowadays Tate and his drivers collect about 800 students for SAD 64, which includes Corinth, Kenduskeag, Bradford, Hudson and Stetson.

“We’re now picking up some of the grandkids of the kids we [first] started picking up,” Ken’s wife, Beverly Tate, said.

And when Ken Tate first starting working for his father, Beverly fell in love with the bus driver.

“I was the girl on the bus that took the kids across the road before crossing guards,” she said. “When he started driving, I asked him out.”

Beverly Tate started driving the bus for her husband in the 1960s. These days she operates the radio at home.

Ken Tate first traveled to Dover-Foxcroft to get his bus driver’s license after holding his regular driver’s license for a year.

“He [the tester] said, ‘You’re awful young but you’ve done everything right so I can’t deny you your license,'” Tate recalled.

Back then bus drivers had to be 17 to get a license. Now, drivers must be 21 years old.

“I’ve loved every day of it,” Tate said of his half-century of driving a bus. “I love kids and I look forward to every day of it.”

In 1973, Tate took over the company from his father, Harvard Tate, who won a 1956 national bus safety essay contest.

“He was judged the safest school bus driver in the nation,” said Tate. “He got a brand new bus and a $50 savings bond.”

When Ken took over the company his dad had two or three buses.

“I’ve increased the fleet to 15 over the years,” he said.

Ten of the buses are for regular transportation, two are handicap accessible and the remaining three are used exclusively for extracurricular activities. The company employs 18 people, some of whom have been working for Tate for 20 years.

“I take great pride in my buses,” he said. “I have good bus drivers and a good mechanic. I get very good support from the school board, the school, the principal, teachers and parents.”

Tate arrives at the bus depot at 6:30 a.m. every weekday and starts his route at precisely 7:05 a.m., which is a tradition he has long lived by.

“People have told me they set their watches by me,” he said.

Driving a bus seems to run in the Tate blood, said Beverly Tate. She said her husband’s mother and father and his uncle Dennis Tate started the trend that continues to this day.

“We have four children and three have bus licenses,” she said. To keep a bus driver’s license, drivers must take an annual physical that tests vision, hearing and physical capabilities. Licenses are renewed every five years.

Albert Tate, one of Ken and Bev’s sons, has been driving for his parents for 20 years. Donny Tate, who serves with the Air National Guard, drives for his parents in his spare time and daughter Nancy Keane spent a year driving kindergarten students.

Remembering the last half-century, Ken Tate couldn’t recall any notable problems with the students.

“I can spot a problem before it even starts,” said Tate. “We’ve had very little problems but we’ve been doing this so long. If they can’t get along with me they can’t get along with anyone.” He said other vehicles on the road are the only concerns for the bus service.

SAD 64 Superintendent Leonard Ney has been working with Tate for 25 years.

“He’s an outstanding person to work with,” Ney said. “He really cares about students and he’s very supportive and will make any adjustments that need to be made. He has been very supportive of students and their activities.”

When Tate will retire and turn in his bus keys is still uncertain.

“I have no idea,” he said. “I think I’ll know when the day comes. Fifty years is a long time but it doesn’t feel like it. I really do enjoy it.”