By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Bryan County probate judge announces retirement
Davis first took office in 2000
Sam Davis Jr
Bryan County Probate Judge Sam Davis Jr. listens to a reporter Wednesday at his office in the Bryan County Administration Building. Davis announced Wednesday that he will retire at the end of the year. - photo by Brent Zell

Sam Davis Jr., Bryan County’s probate judge since 2000, announced Wednesday afternoon that he will retire at the end of the year.

Davis, 70, will not seek re-election and will retire effective Dec. 31, he said during a news conference in his office at the Bryan County Administration Building.

“I enjoy the job. It’s really a good job,” he said. “But it’s time.”

Davis, a Bryan County native, said he pursued the probate-judge position because of a desire to help people. He looks at the probate court as the first contact many people have with the county government, so his goal was to make the initial encounter as pleasant as possible.

“I looked at the probate-court position as a chance to serve the people of Bryan County,” he said.

Over the past 15-plus years in office, Davis has performed a myriad of duties — from overseeing elections to conducting weddings to involuntary committals and deciding on adult guardianship.

The latter two duties have been difficult, he said, particularly adult-guardianship issues. Those deal with a hearing to possibly taking away the rights of a person considered incapacitated and in need of guardianship.

“That’s the most heart-wrenching decision I have to make,” Davis said.

In his time overseeing elections, the county moved to modern, electronic voting equipment, and the number of precincts almost doubled to 10. Two years ago, the county moved election responsibilities to a special board.

Davis, who also was a Baptist minister for 27 years in Georgia and Florida, said he has continuing his woodworking hobby, golfing and doing some volunteering among his retirement plans. Until then, he said, he plans to keep doing what he’s doing and “just be here for the folks.”

“In the 16 years I’ve been in office, I’ve had the privilege of helping people through some very difficult times,” he said.

Sign up for our E-Newsletters
Later yall, its been fun
Placeholder Image

This is among the last pieces I’ll ever write for the Bryan County News.

Friday is my last day with the paper, and come June 1 I’m headed back to my native Michigan.

I moved here in 2015 from the Great Lake State due to my wife’s job. It’s amicable, but she has since moved on to a different life in a different state, and it’s time for me to do the same.

My son Thomas, an RHHS grad as of Saturday, also is headed back to Michigan to play basketball for a small school near Ann Arbor called Concordia University. My daughter, Erin, is in law school at University of Toledo. She had already begun her college volleyball career at Lourdes University in Ohio when we moved down here and had no desire to leave the Midwest.

With both of them and the rest of my family up north, there’s no reason for me to stay here. I haven’t missed winter one bit, but I’m sure I won’t miss the sand gnats, either.

Shortly after we arrived here in 2015, I got a job in communications with a certain art school in Savannah for a few short months. It was both personally and professionally toxic and I’ll leave it at that.

In March 2016 I signed on with the Bryan County News as assistant editor and I’ve loved every minute of it. My “first” newspaper career, in the late 80s and early 90s, was great. But when I left it to work in politics and later with a free-market think tank, I never pictured myself as an ink-stained wretch again.

Like they say, never say never.

During my time here at the News, I’ve covered everything that came along. That’s one big difference between working for a weekly as opposed to a daily paper. Reporters at a daily paper have a “beat” to cover. At a weekly paper like this, you cover … life. Sports, features, government meetings, crime, fundraisers, parades, festivals, successes, failures and everything in between. Oh, and hurricanes. Two of them. I’ll take a winter blizzard over that any day.

Along the way I’ve met a lot of great people. Volunteers, business owners, pastors, students, athletes, teachers, coaches, co-workers, first responders, veterans, soldiers and yes, even some politicians.

And I learned that the same adrenalin rush from covering “breaking news” that I experienced right out of college is still just as exciting nearly 30 years later.

With as much as I’ve written about the population increase and traffic problems, at least for a few short minutes my departure means there will be one less vehicle clogging up local roads. At least until I pass three or four moving vans headed this way as I get on northbound I-95.

The hub-bub over growth here can be humorous, unintentional and ironic all at once. We often get comments on our Facebook page that go something like this: “I’ve lived here for (usually less than five years) and the growth is out of control! We need a moratorium on new construction.”

It’s like people who move into phase I of “Walden Woods” subdivision after all the trees are cleared out and then complain about trees being cut down for phase II.

Bryan County will always hold a special place in my heart and I definitely plan on visiting again someday. My hope is that my boss, Jeff Whitten (one of the best I’ve ever had), will let me continue to be part of the Pembroke Mafia Football League from afar. If the Corleone family could expand to Vegas, there’s no reason the PMFL can’t expand to Michigan.

But the main reason I want to return someday is about that traffic issue. After all, I’ll need to see it with my own eyes before I’ll believe that Highway 144 actually got widened.

Latest Obituaries