Our communities, in many respects, are woven together by the love of the Hurricanes. Not in the sense of Katrina or Fredrick type Hurricanes, but the Hurricanes we know as Alma Bryant High School. For the past 11 years, Doug Estle has been the leader of our local high school and has led the high-school to accomplish a vast amount of accolades. Some of them include but are not limited to the Cambridge International program, Navigator Credit Union school branch, and a wide array of technical programs that have put students on the path to a career straight out of high school. Mr. Estle was also the longest-tenured principal at Alma Bryant since its creation in 1998.
In April of this year, Mr. Estle was named the Alabama Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America Administrator of the Year 2019-2020!
Valerie Guy, a former student and English teacher of Mr. Estle, said, “Mr. Estle is our vigilant leader at Alma Bryant High School. He is a bulwark against defeatists and a protector of his people, but underneath his armor, he is a man who simply loves his school.”
I have had many opportunities to talk with Mr. Estle, and he is nothing but a class act. I can attest to Ms. Guy’s comments that Mr. Estle loved Alma Bryant High School. He focused on academics and the attentiveness of the students to their studies. Many of the students that graduated under his leadership are doing some amazing work in the world now and have gone on to create businesses, work in various trades, and some even come back to teach at Alma Bryant.
Mr. Estle will be missed but is very appreciated in South Mobile County for his work in our students’ lives. Thank you very much, Mr. Estle, and my God bless your retirement.
