Worcester’s First Female Bus Driver Retires After 64 Years On Job

Delegate Mary Beth Carozza is pictured presenting Irma Herbert with a proclamation from the House of Delegates at a retirement dinner last week. Carozza rode on Irma Herbert’s school bus as a child.

BERLIN — The last day of school for Worcester County students marked the final day of a 64-year career for Berlin bus driver Irma Herbert.

Herbert, 84, retired last week as the longest serving school bus driver in Maryland.

“She’s one of a kind,” said Steve Price, director of bus transportation and safety for Worcester County Public schools. “We’re fortunate to have had her as long as we did. We wish her the best.”

Herbert, who’s spent her entire life on the street she grew up on, was hired to drive a bus for Worcester County Public Schools in 1952. With a father and two uncles who were bus drivers, taking the job offered by then-transportation supervisor Ben Nelson just seemed like the thing to do.

“It ran in the family,” Herbert said.

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