Faculty and staff of Demopolis High School held a luncheon on Thursday to honor Annie Robertson, who is retiring after 25 years in education, and football assistant coach Rudy Griffin, who is taking a position at Washington State University.

Math teacher Renee Sheppard is also leaving DHS to take a teaching position in Fayetteville, Tenn.

Robertson served seven years at DHS, having taught for 18 years at A.L. Johnson High School. She taught business education throughout her career as well as computer technology and language arts and writing.

“I moved to Alabama in 1980, and I had to work in corporate,” she said. “When I got down here, there was no corporate, so I had to make do.

“I had a teaching certificate that I got in 1979 at Albany State University in Georgia, so the principal at A.L. Johnson knew that I was new to the area, and someone told him that I had a teaching degree in computers and business education.”

Robertson worked with several extracurricular activities, including the prom, Homecoming and Future Teachers of Alabama.

“I have enjoyed working here,” she said. “It was challenging, and it gave me something interesting to wake up to every morning.”

Robertson said she wants to begin a business in event planning, and has plans to write a book about raising a “near-perfect child.”

Robertson said she would use her experience in raising her own daughters, Andrea, who is a speech and language pathologist with Restore Company, and Dr. Valencia Robertson Wells, who is an optometrist at Morris Avenue Eye Care in Birmingham as well as in Springdale.

Robertson said she plans to attend a Delta Sigma Theta convention in July and to the Essence Festival.

“My mother also just retired at the age of 88 from her work at the nursing home in Blakely, Ga.,” Robertson said. “My students find it hard to believe that we are retiring at the same time.”

Robertson is proud of her students who have achieved, including Future Teachers members who have gone into the field of teaching. She is also proud of three scholarships made available through a grant that she wrote last year.

“I will miss the interaction with the young minds and keeping up with the latest current events,” she said. “My advice to students would be to make sure that they strive for excellence, do their homework and be mannerable to their teachers and parents, because that will get them far. You’ve got to have attitude and aptitude.”