Charles Hickman has filed for School Board in District 2 | Eastern NC Now

Press Release:

    I'm Charles Hickman, and I have filed for election to a second term on the Board of Education. My wife and I reside in Blounts Creek.

    I believe it is important for us to provide students with a solid educational foundation and then to challenge them to use it to their potential. Armed with that they will be ready for the challenges they will encounter in life. I think we have the responsibility to work to the benefit of our students, our families, and our communities.

    Beaufort County is my home. I was born here in Fowle Memorial Hospital. I grew up in Chocowinity and most of my family roots are in Richland Township and in Pamlico County. My parents and grandparents were all interesting people, and they all influenced me very significantly in different ways.


    I grew up in a family business my grandfather started at the end of the Great Depression. Hickman's Garage had several phases and focuses in the decades it operated. As a child I learned to work and operate a business there. As a young teenager I started and operated a bush hogging business. I also worked for several area farmers in tobacco. As an older teenager I worked in the early season tobacco market in Georgia.

    At East Carolina I earned degrees in Geography and History. One of my professors had a military intelligence background and ignited that interest in me. I joined the Army Intelligence Corp and worked as an Army Intelligence Analyst. My job was to observe, study, conduct briefings and write reports to high level Department of Defense personnel. Thinking back, it's hard to believe a country boy from Beaufort County could be conducting briefings with cabinet (Department of Defense) level officials and be working with serious national defense information and issues that we worked with every day. I feel very proud and honored that I had that experience and was trusted to defend our country in that way both in station and out.

    While in the Army I married a girl back home. Velma is a professional educator that began as a classroom teacher. She later went on to work with the Department of Public Instruction for the Northeast Region of our state. She worked her last two years in the Beaufort County Schools Central Office coinciding with my return home from the Army. At that time, I became a US and World History teacher here in Beaufort County. I did that for a number of years but did not make a career of it. I got the itch for business again.

    My last brick and mortar business was Movies and Mercantile, in Chocowinity. When I sold the store part of the business the liquidation became a different sort of business kind of by accident. After finally entering our semi-retirement and retirement phase, my wife and I became active in the Republican Party. We worked hard at the precinct, county, district, and state levels. Along the way I became a district and county chairman of the party.

    My early experiences in Beaufort County and the educational foundation in Beaufort County Schools prepared me well for all I have done in my life. I want the next generations to have all that and more.


    A second term will provide me the opportunity to build on my experiences of the first term, and I promise to continue to deal with everyone in an honest, transparent and straight up manner.

    Thank you for your consideration.