NATCHEZ — It would be easy to argue that Gilmer McLaurin shaped the future of Natchez.

McLaurin, who died Friday at age 100, spent decades of his life educating thousands of Natchez children.

But it wasn’t his work as superintendent of the Natchez public schools that Dr. Clifford Tillman remembers.

It was the bluntness of his former seventh-grade teacher and coach that changed Tillman’s life.

“He also had the job of being in charge of athletics,” Tillman said. “Everyone who was going to be an athlete had to try out before him.

“I did very poorly. He told me ‘You weren’t any good.’

“I kind of had my feelings hurt. I was feeling defeated. I decided that I wasn’t going to allow (that feeling) to happen to me again. And I made top grades in almost every class from then on.

“It turned my whole life around. It really did. This man actually did influence me.”

Tillman retired from a 56-year career in medicine in 2007.

But greater than McLaurin’s bluntness, was his manner, Natchez resident Albert Metcalfe said. It was a manner worthy of respect.

“I just grew up being around him and had tremendous respect for him, and I think pretty much everyone that knew him respected him,” Metcalfe said. “He got your respect because of who he was.”

McLaurin came to Natchez to teach and taught for decades starting in the 1930s. He moved up the ladder and served as superintendent until the 1980s.

Metcalfe said McLaurin developed a great knack for attracting and retaining teachers to Natchez, creating a very successful school district.

McLaurin Elementary School is named in his honor.

He was also the oldest living Natchez Rotarian. He joined the Rotary Club on Sept. 21, 1938.

He also served on the Copiah-Lincoln Community College and Natchez Building and Loan Co. boards of trustees and was an elder at First Presbyterian Church.

McLaurin left Natchez in 2005 to retire near family in Danville, Ky., where he died.

He would have been 101 this month.