Beloved Southeast Delco school van driver Jim Ruane is retiring after driving students for eight years, and he’s fulfilling a promise he made to one particular student, reports Joe Holden for CBS 3.

Ruane picked Wednesday, June 15, for a special reason.

He had been driving student Carrington Campbell since her first day of kindergarten. 

Now she’s a new graduate from Saint Francis of Assisi in Springfield.

 “He was just so friendly to me and he made me feel comfortable, and over the years, you know I didn’t feel like he was just some bus driver driving me, he was more than that,” Carrington said.

Ruane decided that when Carrington graduated and moved on to high school, he would retire.

And so he did.  “I just love that we stuck by our promise throughout the years,” Carrington said.

The two families have promised to stay in touch.

The retired post office clerk from Collingdale who drove van No. 46, who was known as “Mr. Jim,” will be missed.

“I wish we had a hundred of him,” Patty Rose, assistant supervisor at Southeast Delco School District Transportation Department, said. “It would just make life so much easier.”

Read more at CBS 3 about Jim Ruane’s retirement.