From the FBI to a school bus, Mike Mason had a plan.
At the peak of his career, Mike Mason was fourth in command at the FBI. A former U.S. Marine, he’d risen through the Bureau’s ranks to oversee its Criminal, Cyber Response, and Services Branch in Washington, D.C., where he managed more than 6,000 employees. Mason retired from the FBI in 2007 and from Verizon as a Senior VP in 2020.
“After a really great career, I just wanted to give back,” says Mason, now based in Midlothian. He earned his commercial driver’s license and drove a special education bus, ferrying children from Chesterfield County Public Schools to the Faison Center in Richmond. When others insisted he was overqualified for the job, he’d show a photo of the mailbox he backed over with his bus. “I was literally learning something new every day,” he recalls. “Isn’t that what school is all about?”
Today, Mason drives for the Red Cross, moving donated blood from the lab to local hospitals. He’s also a “motivational storyteller,” speaking to future retirees about the importance of living with intention. “There are a lot of unhappy retired people because they haven’t put any thought into it,” he says. After one speech, a man in the audience proved his point, confiding, “I thought more about the last car I was buying than I thought about my retirement.”
“It’s the middle chapter of my life, not the last,” he insists. “Bus driving was great and the Red Cross is a whole new adventure. I’m having a ball right now. My zest for life is no different than when I walked across the stage at my college graduation.”
This article originally appeared in the December 2022 issue.
