front&center Dr. Terry Fiddler

Longtime school board member tries to do the ‘right thing’

By Tammy Keith

LITTLE ROCK — For the first time in 21 years, Dr. Terry Fiddler’s name won’t be on the ballot for Conway School Board. But as he proudly shows pictures of his first grandchild, it’s obvious he’ll find a way to fill the time.

Fiddler, 60, won his first election in 1987 and every year afterward. After the first election, he never had an opponent.

“Maybe people said, ‘Why would anyone want to do that?’” Fiddler said as a reason.

And he never missed a meeting.

“I’d change my vacations and everything else” to make the board meetings, Fiddler said as he relaxed on the leather couch in his dental office in downtown Conway.

Fiddler was president of the board from 1995 until after the school election on Tuesday, Sept. 16.

“It’s time for some new ideas,” he said, although he added, “There’s something to be said for continuity.”

Fiddler said his mind was made up to end his school board career before he ran for District 45 state representative this year. He thought for days he’d won the election, but his opponent was declared the winner after a recount.

It was a tough time for Fiddler, who said he knocked on 3,000 doors during the campaign.

He doesn’t want to elaborate. “That’s behind me,” he said.

There was still time for him to file for school board this year after losing the election, but when asked if he considered that, he said, firmly, “No.”

He barely ever considered becoming anything but a dentist, either.

“I had a cousin who was Mr. Everything at North Little Rock,” Fiddler said, and the cousin had money.

“We didn’t have anything growing up, and he wanted to be a dentist, so I wanted to be a dentist,” Fiddler said.

The cousin didn’t follow that career path, and Fiddler went to Arkansas State Teachers College, now the University of Central Arkansas. He briefly considered becoming an architect.

He married his wife, Joyce, when he was 22 and she was 21. He went to the University of Tennessee dental school and taught there his first year after graduation.

A longing to come back to Conway, where he’d livedsince he was 3 days old, took over.

He came back with his family, wife and two daughters, Nikki and Brooke.

“I helped build one of those playground sets at Julia Lee Moore [Elementary], and I thought, ‘This (school board) would be something neat to do,’” he recalled.

When he started, there were 4,000 students in the district. As he leaves, there are more than 9,000.

He’s been through five superintendents, the most recent Dr. Greg Murry.

“This one year with Greg Murry has been a joy,” Fiddler said.

He recalled asking Murry to come to his office for a visit when the board was looking for a new superintendent.

“I said, ‘Man, we’ve got a match made in heaven here,’” Fiddler said. “He’s such a good, caring, Christian person. I firmly believe he’ll retire as our superintendent.”

The district has been through its ups and downs while Fiddler has served on the board.

“We had such a knock-down, drag out on the auditorium,” Fiddler said, referring to the facility on the high school-west campus.

“People said we didn’t need it. The first millage lost by six votes,” he said, but the project was later approved. The James H. Clark Auditorium, named after the first superintendent under whom Fiddler served, is used “all the time” by the district and the public, Fiddler said.

He said several schools were built without a millageincrease. “We were one of the first school districts to do second-lien bonds,” he said.

There was controversy over school uniforms, Fiddler said, and year-round school. “Theoretically, it sounds really good - I was for it - but economically it wouldn’t work. It was going to be too expensive,” he said.

There was controversy over a book - one Fiddler has since forgotten - and the American Civil Liberties Union got involved, Fiddler said.

“It all worked out,” he added.

Drug testing was another hot topic for the board. It was approved by one vote, but Fiddler voted against it, because of the fact only students in extracurricular activities could be tested.

He received a lot of phone calls at home over that one.

“It was an emotional thing for their children - we had to base it on what was best for the school as a whole,” he said.

The board later voted to end drug testing.

When Murry took over as superintendent, the financial situation was found to be in crisis and a reduction in force was implemented.

“I wish we had been informedbetter, because looking at the numbers and looking at the results, they weren’t adding up,” Fiddler said. “When we have the bad times, we’ve stayed solid and worked through them. Nobody’s jumped ship.”

One of the aspects of the district he’s most proud of is the quality of the teachers hired by the board, he said.

“I’d put these teachers up to anybody in the state - the South. The proof is in the pudding. We’ve got some great teachers,” he said. “Ask [Hewlett-Packard] or Kimberly Clark - you don’t think they want to know the quality of the school system before they set up shop?”

Fiddler said the philosophy that guided him all those years on the board was, “Doing the right thing is not an option - it’s the only thing. People may disagree with what I’ve done ... but it was what I felt like I had to do.”

Bill Clements, a member of the school board and former health teacher and coach in the district, called Fiddler “very unselfish, very focused. His tenure on the board, he was passionate about making sure that the teachers and the administrators were well-prepared and also they were provided with everything to do their jobs well, that’s what amazed me.”

Clements also has been credited by Joyce Fiddler for introducing the couple in college, although Clements doesn’t remember it.

“I’ve known him for about as long as anybody except his momma and daddy. I’ve been comfortable with his leadership. He was controversial sometimes, but a lot of leaders are. We’re a much better school district because of his leadership. It’s going to be an interesting time period after Terry is gone. For the next months and years, really, after he’s gone, it’s going to be an interesting phase we’ll go through.

“I’m proud for him, I’m proud of what he’s done.”

In addition to spending countless hours serving on the board, Fiddler has enjoyed the band he started 19 years ago, Yesteryear.

“I always wanted a rock ‘n’ roll band - I started from the ground up,” he said.

He is lead singer and plays blues harmonica.

The five-member band still has four of its original members,he said.

They play ’60s and ’70s music and a lot of Elvis.

“One time a guy said, ‘Can you play some rap?’ I said, ‘No, we do music.’”

The band plays at Toad Suck Daze and a variety of special events. He has a rehearsal studio behind his dental office in downtown Conway.

How’s his voice after all these years? “Better than ever,” he said, smiling.

He said it will be a long time before he runs for public office again, but he won’t slow down.

“I’m not a couch potato by any stretch of the imagination,” he said, describing himself as a “Type-A, gregarious person.”

“I think maybe there’s something out there for me. I don’t think I’ll go quietly into the night,” he said.

matter of fact Occupation: Dentist Family: Wife, Dr. Joyce Fiddler; daughters, Nikki Lovell and Brooke Steen; 6-month-old grandson, Elliot Graham Lovell Hobbies: I’m an avid hunter - pheasant, duck.

Favorite quote: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” John F. Kennedy I like to read: Smithsonian and National Geographic.

Favorite snack: Peanut butter cookies - I’m a cookie monster.

His band’s most-requested song at weddings: “I can’t help falling in love with you” by Elvis.

Something people don’t know about you: I am a forensic odontologist. I am over the state dental group that is responsible for identifying those individuals who are killed in an incident of mass nature. I have identified several over the years on an individual basis.

While in college, I made some extra money by capturing venomous snakes - rattlesnakes, copperheads and cotton mouths - in Arkansas, and milking them, and selling the venom to have anti-venom.

River Valley Ozark, Pages 128, 129 on 09/07/2008