5:46 p.m.
Messages poured out on paper for 58-year-old Gilbert "Wade" Meredith. He was Carroll County's Coordinator for Alternative Education died early Monday morning after crews said his home along Floyd Pike caught fire. Crisis counselors were made available to his students.
"He really loved kids and loved what he did so it's important that we took care of the kids first and that's what he would have wanted," said Dr. Strader Blankenship, Asst. Superintendent for Carroll County Public Schools.
Better known as "Wade" to students and colleagues, Meredith spent more than three decades as an educator in Carroll County, wearing many hats, from science teacher to administrator. Lisa Hurst talks about a recent email Meredith received from one of the thousands of lives he impacted.
"He showed me an email he had gotten from a former student, who is now 40 years old. When he was teaching science at St. Paul School in Cana, the lady said he had been on her mind and wanted to tell him how he had touched her...you could tell he was very proud of that email," said Hurst, a teacher at the Alternative Education Center.
While Meredith spent more than half his life in the Carroll County school system, he spent his final days at the county's Alternative Education Center, trying to help troubled students.
"They do have challenges that other students don't have and they need that extra support and sometimes just a listening ear and a shoulder to cry on," said Hurst.
That is is exactly what some students and colleagues now need, as they try to cope with the tragic loss of the man they call "Wade."
Investigators do not believe the fire was intentionally set.
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10:37 a.m.
The Carroll County Sheriff's Office is investigating what sparked a house fire early Monday, that killed a teacher.
Investigators say the first call about the flames came around 12:01 a.m. When firefighters arrived at the home on Floyd Pike, they found a home on fire.
Inside the home, investigators say 58-year-old Gilbert Meredith died.
Investigators do not believe the fire was intentionally set.
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