How can I run a shell script as a daemon under Redhat?

I found a script at http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/programming-scripting/190279-daemon-etc-init-d-functions-does-not-return-launching-process.html#post897522 which I was able to modify to suit my needs. It manually tracks the PID and creates a PID file using pidof. I ended up having to modify this to use pgrep as pidof was unable to see the PID of my script. After that modification, it worked fine. *Note, pgrep seems to only work if the full script name is under 15 characters long

Here's what I ended up with:

#!/bin/bash
#
# 
#
# Start on runlevels 3, 4 and 5. Start late, kill early.
# chkconfig: 345 95 05
#
#
#!/bin/bash

# absolute path to executable binary
progpath='/usr/local/bin/script.sh'

# arguments to script
opts=''

# binary program name
prog=$(basename $progpath)

# pid file
pidfile="/var/run/${prog}.pid"

# make sure full path to executable binary is found
! [ -x $progpath ] && echo "$progpath: executable not found" && exit 1

eval_cmd() {
  local rc=$1
  if [ $rc -eq 0 ]; then
    echo '[  OK  ]'
  else
    echo '[FAILED]'
  fi
  return $rc
}

start() {
  # see if running
  local pids=$(pgrep $prog)

  if [ -n "$pids" ]; then
    echo "$prog (pid $pids) is already running"
    return 0
  fi
  printf "%-50s%s" "Starting $prog: " ''
  $progpath $opts &

  # save pid to file if you want
  echo $! > $pidfile

  # check again if running
  pgrep $prog >/dev/null 2>&1
  eval_cmd $?
}

stop() {
  # see if running
  local pids=$(pgrep $prog)

  if [ -z "$pids" ]; then
    echo "$prog not running"
    return 0
  fi
  printf "%-50s%s" "Stopping $prog: " ''
  rm -f $pidfile
  kill -9 $pids
  eval_cmd $?
}

status() {
  # see if running
  local pids=$(pgrep $prog)

  if [ -n "$pids" ]; then
    echo "$prog (pid $pids) is running"
  else
    echo "$prog is stopped"
  fi
}

case $1 in
  start)
    start
    ;;
  stop)
    stop
    ;;
  status)
    status
    ;;
  restart)
    stop
    sleep 1
    start
    ;;
  *)
    echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|status|restart}"
    exit 1
esac

exit $?