Fred Edgar Drummond was one of the county’s most distinguished educators.  For 36 years, from 1953 to 1989, he served as assistant principal and principal in the Loudoun Country Public Schools, a service record still unbroken.

He helped manage, with singular grace, the difficult transition from segregation, through resistance sometimes forceful and sometimes comedic, to today’s world-class K-12 school system open to all the children of Loudoun.

Born in Pleasantville, N.J, Drummond attended St. Paul’s Polytechnic Institute in Lawrenceville, VA.

After serving for two years in the 477th Bombardment Group of the famed “Tuskegee Airmen,” Drummond set out on the path that would prove his life’s calling: educating and mentoring young people.

His wife, Peggy, herself a native of Loudoun’s town of Purcellville, encouraged her husband to apply for jobs closer to her childhood home. Because of his relative lack of experience, however, Drummond’s career began in Kentucky, where he spent five years teaching after earning his master’s degree in administration and supervision from Indiana University.

Drummond’s journey finally came full circle early in the 1950’s when an administrative position in the Loudoun public schools became available. After serving as both principal and teacher, simultaneously, at the black elementary school in Middleburg, Drummond was offered the job that would change his life forever, becoming the first principal at Frederick Douglas Elementary in Leesburg in 1958.

After ten years at Douglas, Fred served shorter stints at Broad Run High School and Leesburg Elementary before settling in and finishing his illustrious career with an eighteen-year run at Catoctin Elementary.

Today, the library at Catoctin Elementary is named in his honor, as is the drive upon which the new Frederick Douglas Elementary School sits in downtown Leesburg.

Drummond selflessly served Loudoun County, its schools and its students for nearly 40 years.

A proud father and grandfather, he and his wife, Peggy, have been married for more than 67 years.

We lost Fred in 2017.