By Tommy Witherspoon

Tribune-Herald staff writer

After 34 years of trying to shepherd troubled children toward a different path, Rodney Davidson says it’s time to spend more time with his family and maybe tend to a few cows.

Davidson, 57, spent his last day Friday as director of the Bill Logue Juvenile Justice Center, McLennan County’s juvenile probation and detention center. He attended a reception in his honor, hugging friends and colleagues and reflecting on his three decades of service to county youths in need of direction.

The reception was held at the county’s new $8 million juvenile facility on Gholson Road, one of Davidson’s crowning achievements and a symbol of how far the county has come from the days when juveniles used buckets for toilets and officials constantly mopped up water from leaks and flooding at the converted nursing home that served as the county’s former juvenile detention center.

Davidson put off retirement until he could usher his staff into the new facility almost two years ago.

The new center allows the county to provide more programs, counseling and treatment in an effort to divert young offenders from the adult criminal justice system.

“It’s a good time,” Davidson said of his retirement. “I have had a long career. We have reached many of the goals that I have set for the department. I think that it will be good for someone to come in with new ideas and new energy. That never hurts anything.”

The success’ successor

That person won’t be new to McLennan County. Members of the juvenile board, led by 74th State District Judge Alan Mayfield, the county’s juvenile court judge, last week selected Davidson’s longtime friend and assistant chief, Bobby Campos, as his successor over three other applicants.

Campos, 60, has been in the juvenile justice business 37 years, including nine as director of adult and juvenile probation in Beeville. He returned to McLennan County in 1982 and has been Davidson’s assistant chief probation officer since 1988.

“I could not have imagined someone else getting the job because I know Mr. Campos very well and he has got tons of experience,” Davidson said. “I could assure the board that he would do an exceptional job. From what I have experienced over the years, what you have in-house is usually better than what you can find outside.”

Campos, a Waco native who grew up speaking Spanish until he went to Sul Ross Elementary School in South Waco, said Davidson not only has been a good colleague but a dear friend over the years.

“If it was a marriage, it would probably be pretty perfect,” Campos said with a laugh. “We have been on the same page. We have the same agenda: helping kids. Both of us have a commitment and compassion for kids.”

Because of that, don’t look for drastic changes when Campos moves into the big office Monday morning.

“Mr. Davidson has done an excellent job. We are not going to reinvent the wheel. We are just going to enhance it,” Campos said.

Davidson and Campos have seen a lot of changes in their time with the county program that was nearest and dearest to the heart of the late Judge Bill Logue, the county’s longtime juvenile court judge.

When Davidson started as a juvenile probation officer in 1972, there were six probation officers, the juvenile program budget was $750,000 and the detention center, converted from the county’s former retirement home, included 16 detention beds, four for girls.

Now, there are 29 probation officers, a total staff of 94, a $5 million budget and 98 detention beds, including 18 slots for the county’s boot camp program for boys.

Kids today and the problems they encounter are different, too, Davidson said.

Thirty years ago, probation officers dealt with paint sniffers and bicycle thieves.

More recently, marijuana and cocaine abuse and more violent crimes have become the norm.

Since moving to the new facility in 2004, Davidson has been able to add an eight-slot boot camp program for girls, something he had wanted to do for some time.

Goals yet to be achieved, Davidson said, are the development of an in-house substance abuse program with eight beds and an independent living or transitional home for children who are leaving the facility but don’t have proper support at home.

Campos said he also hopes to add a full-time psychiatrist and a full-time mentor to the staff.

Cut from the same cloth

Mayfield, the county’s juvenile court judge, said Davidson has “done a real fine job,” adding that his department has been instrumental in changing the lives of many kids for the better.

He said Campos is from the same mold.

“Mr. Campos has been with the department for many years and has a genuine passion for his work,” Mayfield said. “He has a real understanding for kids who have the issues that our kids have and he is always a no-nonsense fellow who isn’t going to coddle anyone.”

Vickie Rogers-Cobb, a juvenile department secretary for 31 years, said it was a pleasure working with Davidson, adding that he was “always fair and considerate and had the best interest of the children at heart.”

She predicts a smooth transition from Davidson to Campos.

Davidson said the first thing he will do in retirement is fence in his 50-acre farm in Mound, just east of Gatesville, so he can get 10 or so cows and a horse or two.

It’s where he grew up on his father’s farm and where his 80-year-old mother still lives.

He and his wife will build a home there soon and hope to spend more time with his daughter, who is married and lives in Forth Worth.

“In my life, it has gone full circle,” he said. “It really has.”

twitherspoon@wacotrib.com