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A Giant Is Gone

March 8, 2007

By LOYD BRUMFIELD / Today Newspapers

In the long history of Cedar Hill, W.S. Permenter was a giant figure.

He moved here in the 1950s as an agricultural teacher, moved on to become a principal and eventually school superintendent and two-term mayor.

Permenter, who died Feb. 28 in Forest, Va., is a key figure in the transformation of Cedar Hill into the booming city it is today.

“I don’t know if any one person can adequately express what he meant to the city and the schools,” said Kim Lewis, Cedar Hill School District associate superintendent for support services. “He was one of those unique individuals who lived and breathed public service. His heart was always with the kids, and it stayed that way even as mayor.”

Permenter’s legacy lives on here in the form of a stronger relationship between the city and its schools, and in Permenter Middle School, his namesake.

Permenter returned to the school named for him early in 2006 in a ceremony dedicated to his longtime service.

Permenter, 78, is survived by his wife, Ann, daughter Nancy Anderson and her husband Larry, and two grandchildren, Nathan Anderson and Janna Callahan.

Permenter and his wife had recently moved to Virginia, where his daughter lives.

A memorial service was held at Grace Evangelical Free Church in Lynchburg, Va., on March 3. A memorial service is also planned for Cedar Hill at an undetermined time, and he will be buried in the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery.

For anyone who lived in Cedar Hill for any length of time, Permenter had an impact on their lives.

“His only failure in life was trying to teach me to be tactful,” said Jimmy Mobley, a longtime resident of Cedar Hill and an attorney who frequently appeared before Permenter at city hall while he was mayor.

Mobley was a student at what is now Bray Elementary when he met Permenter.

“He was my ag teacher in high school, and after I graduated we remained friends,” Mobley said.

“He was just a really, really great person,” he said. “I raised calves with him. I learned woodworking from him and he taught me how to weld. I used to go to cattle auctions with him. He’d take me to the (Fort Worth) stockyards back when they really were stockyards.”

Former CHISD Superintendent Jim Gibson, now the superintendent of the Montgomery School District, remembered Permenter as a welcoming presence when Gibson took the job here.

“He and his wife Ann and (Gibson’s wife) Mitzi and I went out to dinner, and I was able to pick his brain,” Gibson said. “I don’t think anyone could’ve been more helpful.”

Mayor Rob Franke, speaking at the city’s volunteer appreciation dinner, asked guests to keep Permenter’s family in mind.

“He was one of the people who is the foundation of this town,” Franke said. “He was one of the people on the leading edge when Cedar Hill was trying to decide if it was going to remain a small town or be progressive.”

Linda Patton, president of the Cedar Hill Education Foundation, met Permenter when she was in eighth grade, and he lived down the street from her family for several years.

“He was very genuine, and he was always so honest,” she said. “He would never hurt your feelings, and his wife is as good as gold, too.”

Permenter offered a strong fatherly presence for many boys who didn’t have that at home, Patton said.

“He encouraged kids to go to college who never got that kind of encouragement at home,” she said. “A lot of them had dads, but they weren’t like W.S., who would always tell them that they could be anything they wanted to be and he would try his best to help them.”

Patton was senior class president and recalls Permenter and his boss, C.W. Hawkins, chaperoning them on a senior class to New Orleans.

“I wouldn’t have crossed him under any circumstances,” she said. “You just didn’t want to disappoint him.”

Permenter had a huge influence on Mobley. He credits trips to FFA conventions with him with nurturing an interest in politics.

“I think if he had had his way, I’d be a school superintendent,” Mobley said. “But I always wanted to be a lawyer since the fifth grade or so. He helped me get into local politics. He just was always there.”

Mobley remembers several visits to city council meetings as an attorney with business before the city.

“He had red hair, and he had that red-headed temper,” Mobley said. “I could still turn his face red with some of the things I said at meetings, but you know, I never really considered the facts when I was making an argument.”

Permenter ran unopposed as mayor.

“I really believe he was chosen providentially as mayor during a very important time in the city’s history,” Lewis said. “He did a lot to bring the city and the school district together - or on the same page as we like to say - and I’m not so sure we would be building a brand new multi-government center here without him.”

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