A One-Of-a-Kind Gift for Druid Hills Middle

Bernard Holcombe, 83 years old, a longtime area resident who attended (when it was a K-8 school) and Boys High, was pleasantly surprised at the positive reception he received for what he created: a dragon carved of wood from an oak tree. This dragon, which now stands in its own display case in the school's lobby, has quite a history.

Holcombe, a Korean War veteran and the father of four girls who all attended Shamrock High School, moved the family to Delcourt Drive near the school in 1963 and watching as the school was built. Shamrock opened in 1967 and the first graduating class planted a saw-toothed oak tree on the school property in 1970.

In 1996, the year Shamrock became a middle school, lightning struck the tree and it had to be removed. Holcombe drove by the tree as it was being removed and was inspired.

"I said to myself, 'I'm going to carve something out of that wood,'" he said. He sought and was granted permission to take as much wood as he needed. "I really did not know the history of [the tree] until I got the wood." Once he learned the history, though, he decided to make dragons, the school mascot, and made five in total.

This included one for his neighbor Bob Stubbs, who was on a naming committee for the school in the 1960s. Stubbs has remained involved in the school since then. Holcombe carved Stubbs’ dragon about five years ago, he said, and used the same blueprint from that to carve the one for the school.

"The wood was [once] easier to carve. It has cured, dried out, and that piece of wood out there [in the display case] was like drilling on a piece of concrete. It is so hard, so I did all that with power tools," he said. "It took about three weeks to carve it and finish it."

After carving this one, he read an article that said Druid Hills Middle was seeking items for their display cases. He attempted to make contact but said the line was always busy, so he turned to his neighbor, a teacher, and told him the idea. The neighbor made the connections and reported that the school would be happy to have the dragon.

When Holcombe first brought the dragon to Druid Hills Middle last week, Lisa Slappey, the school's International Baccalaureate coordinator, was in the front office. He wrote a note explaining the story of the dragon and she read it. She recognized his name at the bottom of the paper.

“She said, 'Are you Nancy Holcombe's daddy?'" he recalled. Nancy is his youngest daughter and had been friends with Slappey as kids, often going to together. When he recalled this connection, he was moved.

Slappey has been caring for the dragon and had a brass plaque made for it. He also put together the display case.

Holcombe was inspired to start carving on a trip to England with friends in the 1980s. One of his traveling companions was doing genealogical research, so she spent a lot of time in churches to look at records, giving him time to look at the carvings.

“In England, everything is decorated with oak or walnut carvings,” he said. “So I got interested in carving. That started it. That planted the seed.”

Back home, he took woodworking classes offered by the county and went from there. He now teaches woodworking classes at the Tucker Recreational Center, taking up this role when his teacher retired to Lake Lanier.

“He turned to me and said ‘Bernard, you’re going to be the instructor.’ So I said ‘why me?’ and he says ‘Because you’ve got a band saw,’” he explained. The teacher cuts all the blank pieces of wood for students to use, so a band saw is useful for that, he added.

To him, woodworking “keeps you out of trouble.”

“I still cannot get over the reception that that little dragon has made,” he said. “I figured it would be in a big case with other stuff.”

But the dragon has been given its own case, a special treatment that brought a smile to Holcombe’s face.