Dublin graduate William McCormick’sparents raised him to be honest and hardworking. “I just always think about things they said, and I try to live by the advice that they gave me,” he said.
McCormick graduated from Dublin High School in 1994, and went on to work at Sikes Movie Land for eight months.
“I went from there to Golden Peanut,” he said. “We sold peanuts to M&M, Mars and Hershey, and they put the peanuts in their candy bars and all that. That was really interesting.”
McCormick worked as an operator for the sheller, the machine that ground down the peanuts to separate them from their shells. He stayed at Golden Peanut for four years, when the peanut industry in town began declining and the company had to cut back its staff.
McCormick’s next job was at Poston Feed Mill in Stephenville, working in customer service. While working there, his mom became ill and he took a job at Walmart that allowed him to spend more time with her.
At the time, McCormick’s brother Coy was working for Saint Gobain, and helped McCormick get a job there. At Saint Gobain, McCormick worked as a machine operator punching out floor sanding disks.
McCormick met his now wife, Samantha, while working at Saint Gobain. “She started working as a packer in the area that I was working in, and they moved her up to an assistant. She was helping me on my machine, so that’s how we met.”
McCormick’s brother passed away in 2004 in a car accident, and shortly after McCormick left Saint Gobain. He began working at Fibergrate, a company that makes fiberglass. He worked in the paint department.
In 2013, he left Fibergrate and began working at Big Lots part time. Over the next seven years, he stayed at Big Lots and worked other part-time jobs on the side, such as landscaping and working at Tim’s Concrete and Rent-ACenter.
In 2020, McCormick’s wife became ill, and the couple decided to move to Shreveport, Louisiana to get a second opinion and be closer to his wife’s parents. The doctor in Shreveport helped her make a full recovery, and she’s now healthy and working at Dollar General.
The couple is enjoying their time in Shreveport. “It’s a little more peaceful, a little bit quieter than it is around Stephenville,” McCormick said. “Everybody down here has been really nice and awesome. We’ve been treated really, really nice.”
In Shreveport, McCormick started working at Walmart again, unpacking shipments. He currently works in the chemical section on a team of 15 people, and enjoys spending time with his coworkers.
In the future, he hopes to get his commercial drivers license and drive a truck for Walmart. He would be following in the footsteps of his dad, who was also a truck driver. “He drove for Mayflower for 20 years, and he drove for Atlas Van Lines for 20 years,” McCormick said. “When I rode with him, I got to see from California all the way to West Virginia.”
When he has free time, McCormick enjoys drawing. “I like to sit and draw things — comic book characters, people,” he said. “When I was young, my older brother, Bobby, taught me how to do it. He was always sketching and drawing all the time, and would be like, ‘Hey, what do you think about this?’ And then he would just sit there and sketch, and he would do it all in pen.”
McCormick’s brother Bobby now lives in McKinney where he works as a security guard. He has another brother, Roy, who lives in Proctor. His brother Coy passed away in 2004.
McCormick and his wife Samantha have been married for 20 years. His parents, Shirley Perry McCormick and Bobby G. McCormick Sr., have both passed away, as well as his stepdad Manuel Aranda. His late grandparents, Coy and Louise Perry, used to own the Dublin Progress and Coy Perry served as mayor.
Throughout his life, McCormick’s parents have been his greatest source of inspiration. “My mom always had a way with words,” he said.
Losing so many of his family members over the years has been tough on McCormick. “Probably the greatest challenge is probably everybody getting sick and passing away, and then having to move forward and try not to look back on too much of that, you know?” he said. “My mom died, my brother died, my dad died, so it was just like one after the next, and I’m still sitting here thinking, ‘how do I do this?’ Because nobody ever explained it to me.”
“You just have to take it and go, and then still have something to believe in,” he said. “Have your personal relationship with God, because He’ll take care of everything.”
His advice to future Dublin graduates is to appreciate and listen to your family while you still have them. “Always listen to your parents, because they know what’s best for you,” he said. “And have no regrets about taking advice or anything from them, because you always need that advice. It’s great no matter what you’re doing.”
Editor’s Note: This column chronicles what Dublin graduates have done since high school. If you have any suggestions for other grads, email publisher@dublincitizen.com.