Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
A scattering of veteran teachers around the county retire this week, including two with almost 30 years each at Colfax High School. Watch this space for stories of more retirees in next week’s Gazette.
Cary Cammack
The year Cary Cammack began in Colfax, in the fall of 1991, eight kids turned out for the musical.
He is retiring this year after directing 26 annual musicals, with an average cast of 40-45.
Cammack began in Colfax teaching music/choir to students at Jennings Elementary and the high school, taking over the November musical in his second year after he was asked by former Supt. Don Cox to help restore the tradition.
Cammack never took drama or any kind of a theater class, but had assisted with the music for drama teachers at Grand Junction, Colo., and Marsh Valley, Idaho.
He started his teaching career with eight years at a big high school in Grand Junction, teaching choir and music appreciation. Cammack then moved to Southern Idaho where he taught for two years at Marsh Valley.
“I went from a large school to a medium school to a small school, on purpose,” said Cammack. “I wanted to have more time at home with my kids.”
He returned to the Palouse with his family to teach – he and wife Patti's oldest daughter in sixth grade. Cary had lived in Moscow until he was 15. He later went to University of Denver to study music education.
Cammack first played piano at age seven, after his mother wanted him to wait until he was eight.
“My parents loved music, both my brothers played piano and I got interested,” Cammack said. “Both my brothers dropped it, and I just kept at it.”
He taught his first lessons at 14.
Cammack, who began in Colfax in a portable classroom at Jennings Elementary, has taught general music to kindergarten through fifth grade and choir to sixth-graders through high school.
The youngest start with melody, then they learn rhythm, then tempo dynamics. By fourth and fifth grade, Cammack would teach students to read music. At that stage, he also worked with band teacher Mike Morgan as students started to learn instruments in Morgan's fifth-grade classes.
“I just wanted to have some fun with music so throughout the students' lives they would enjoy and feel comfortable with music,” Cammack said.
He taught his own five children, (Aubrey, Elise, Michael, Brenton and Joseph) who graduated from Colfax, and now he teaches three of his 13 grandchildren – in elementary school at Jennings.
Over the past two years, Cammack talked with Patti about retiring, as they had seen some contemporaries have health issues prevent some of the things they had planned to do.
“I'd been in the classroom for 37 years, which is a long time,” Cammack said.
One more musical
Cammack's plans for retirement include going on a church mission with Patti and one more item. He will return to direct the musical this fall, “Cinderella,” with assistance from his successor, Maarika Vercamer, after superintendent Jerry Pugh asked him to.
Vercamer, a first-year teacher, comes to the district from Pullman. She did a practicum with Cammack in Colfax last spring.
He announced “Cinderella" two weeks ago, as he usually does, just before the end of the school year.
Deciding on the musical each year took into account a few factors for Cammack, mostly regarding the makeup of the leading high school classes that year.
“We've had a lot of boys in recent years, many graduated this year and now we have a lot of girls, so the princess, fairy godmother, stepmother, a lot of girls' parts,” Cammack said.
Choice of production also has to do with subject matter and tone.
“I'm a G-rated person,” said Cammack. “I believe that high school students don't need to be exposed to so much other things. It's been my values and Colfax has appreciated it.”
At times, certain words have been excised or changed along the way, including swear words in “South Pacific,” which was put on most recently in 2014 – a lot of boys' roles.
His interest in choir grew out of its accessibility.
“With choir, you don't have to spend years and years to learn it,” Cammack said. “There is not the time required to learn an instrument. In two months, you could have a choir. That's a lot of fun.”
He has taught a range of students.
“If they are willing to try, I've found that 80-85 percent of people can sing,” Cammack said. “Some simply can't hear it.”
In his last week now, Cammack has begun the process of cleaning out.
“Three big containers to recycling so far and six grocery bags of garbage,” he said. “Two closets to go, but I'm getting there.”
He has allowed himself one box to take home.
“Just one, the rest of it I'll leave,” Cammack said.
A reception will be held June 15 from 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. at the Courtyard in Colfax for Cammack and Mary Chastain, a longtime music teacher at LaCrosse, who is also retiring.
Ross Swan
A member of the Colfax High School class of 1974 now graduates in another sense this week, retiring after 21 years teaching at Colfax High school and 12 years at Steptoe.
Ross Swan began his career in a combined seventh and eighth-grade class in the old brick building just off Highway 195 after completing a foreign language degree at WSU in 1980. He worked for five more years as a farmhand before he got into teaching.
“It was a stopover. I didn't want to get out of the farming game quite yet,” Swan said.
Once at Colfax High School, he taught a range of subjects, focusing mainly on history and social studies. He taught Pacific Northwest history to eighth-graders, world history to freshman, U.S. history to sophomores and economics/current world issues to seniors. Swan taught psychology and sociology, physical education, pre-algebra and since 2013 he has taught driver safety, for which he won't retire until the end of summer school driver's ed. classes.
“It's been quite a variety, which I've enjoyed,” Swan said. “I'm there to serve kids, so wherever they need me, I'll pretty much go.”
Now he retires from full-time teaching, and this fall, Swan will be a WSU field supervisor for practicum and student teachers for six students – all of which are in the Pullman school district.
“Hopefully I have some good advice after 33 years in the classroom,” said Swan.
He also may do some substitute teaching.
“I don't have as many tricks up my sleeve as I used to,” Swan said. “There comes a time. I'll follow my grandkids around, we might travel a little.”
His three daughters all graduated from Colfax in the early 2000s. His wife, Sherri, retired from PNW Farmers Cooperative two weeks ago.
His oldest grandchild, Lilly Swan, is a sophomore in his U.S. history class right now.
“That's another reason to retire,” Swan said.
What were the biggest changes across his years teaching?
“Certain technology in the classroom,” he said. “Kids, I think, are pretty much the same. They want to know you care about them and support them. If you show some interest in their life, they may do some things they normally wouldn't do. Whatever their interest is becomes mine. It enriches my life as well.”
He indicated how he went about this.
“I go to a lot of sporting events, go to the play, the choir, band, talk about their job or their car or their horse,” he said.
During the summers, Swan kept working harvest for farmers, worked at the state grain inspection office and county road department.
“To sum up, for me it's just been a great experience. I'm happy to go to work, great colleagues too, even some administrators,” he said, with a smile.
Jim Stewart
In the summer of 1979 Jim Stewart and Ross Swan were farmhands on county land owned by Stewart's father-in-law. In 2018, they both retire after long careers as teachers.
While Swan finishes at Colfax, Stewart will retire from Garfield/Palouse High School after 32 years as a math teacher and longtime baseball coach. Raised in Clarkston, he was the first member of his family to go to college. Stewart got a degree in social studies with a math minor.
“The math minor was because there was a chance for a job,” he said. “That worked out and I enjoyed the rest of what it became. I never thought I'd be in any place for 30 years in a row.”
He began his teaching career in Nez Perce, Idaho, where he spent four years before coming to Palouse in the first year of the combined Garfield/Palouse High School – 1986-'87.
Working in small schools was not intentional.
“I intended to teach wherever I got a job,” Stewart said. “I appreciated the fact that I got to work at small schools, to get to know all of the people and be in that environment.”
Teaching algebra through calculus in the classroom, Stewart coached baseball for 22 years, with a high finish of second in state in 2001. Now with Friday as his last day at work, he will clean out his desk one last time. A year ago, he cleaned it out to move to another classroom when the audiovisual group needed the bigger classroom.
It was somewhat of a rehearsal for this summer.
What was the biggest change he saw in his career?
“Probably technology – when you bring in more options, you also bring in more distractions. It's a balance,” Stewart said.
Sue Redman
Palouse Elementary School teacher Sue Redman will finish her 34th year at the school this week, retiring after 18 years as a second grade teacher and the rest of the time in first, fourth and fifth grade.
She grew up a farmgirl off the Garfield/Palouse highway and went to college at Eastern Washington, after which she started her career at a reservation school in Omak.
After two years, Redman came to Palouse as a teacher's aide and was given her own class when the second grade split into two.
Now with those kids over age 40, she decided to retire.
“It was time, I just got tired, I didn't have resiliency to bounce back like I used to,” said Redman. “It was time for somebody new, with more oomph.”
She will now start something different.
“For the first time in my life, I don't have a plan,” Redman said. “It's exciting, a whole new chapter.”
What changed the most over her career?
“The amount of paperwork I had to do,” she said. “It went up by maybe one-third more, if not more.”
Redman, who grew up wanting to be a farmer, still cooks harvest meals for the family farm, now run by brothers Jim and Sam Redman.
“I appreciate all of the support I've gotten from the community,” Redman said. “Thank you for letting me teach your kids. It was a great honor and privilege.”
Char Baldwin
A teacher's assistant/para-educator for 33 years at Palouse Elementary and Garfield/Palouse High School, Char Baldwin started at Palouse in the fall of 1985 after moving to town with her second husband, the late Bruce Baldwin, who died this past November.
Char first applied with the school district as a cook. She did not get that job but soon heard of an opening for what was then called a teacher's assistant, part-time. She got the job, working three hours per day.
“By the end of the first week it was eight hours a day,” Baldwin said.
So her work at the school had begun, with a normal day varying over the years as she led reading, writing and math groups – testing and organizing students into proficiency levels – also patroling the lunchroom and working as a recess monitor.
Her classroom served as the school skills center too which helped students with specific challenges.
“Over the course of the years, there have been many hats, different kids, different challenges, the whole gamut,” Baldwin said.
Her four children went to her workplace too, all graduating from Garfield/Palouse High School. Baldwin's son Sgt. Jacob Demand, died in Iraq in 2004.
Now, at age 63, she will retire and remain in Palouse.
“With Bruce's passing, thinking of the things we didn't get to do, it was time to move on to new adventures,” Baldwin said. “I have children, grandchildren and even two great grandchildren. I have my mom in San Diego. My yard is gigantic, I like to tinker and re-purpose things. There are many volunteer opportunities in Palouse.”
Her first item post-retirement was June 1 following the reception for Gar/Pal's retiring teachers.
“The after-party is at my house,” she said the week before.
What was the most enjoyable part of her career?
“The part that gets my soul is when a child who is struggling gets it,” Baldwin said. “You can see it in their eyes. It's a wonderful feeling.”
She will now conclude another chapter of her time in Palouse.
“Bruce and I both felt there was a greater plan and we ended up exactly where we should've been,” Baldwin said.
Brenda Schultheis – Colton
Third and fourth grade teacher Brenda Schultheis retires this week from Colton, her 18th year at the school and 38th in a career that included 14 years at two elementary schools and three in Colfax.
It began in 1980.
“I'm old enough to have used ditto machines,” she said, referring to devices which carbon paper was cranked through for one copy at a time. “The changes in technology have been very good. It's good for the kids to learn as much as they can, and they have no fear of it.”
A contemporary item she salutes is the document camera, which sits on her desk and shines light under a page, which a projector shines on the wall.
“It can show my computer screen too,” said Schultheis, who is related to current Schultheis students in Colton as her husband's cousins grandchildren.
Her and husband Tom now join in retirement, as he is a retired farmer and loan officer.
“We plan to do some traveling, camping and visiting relatives,” Schultheis said.
She will also work as a substitute teacher at Colton.
Deciding to retire in April, Schultheis began to go through and clear out items throughout the spring.
Any surprises found?
“A behavior check sheet for a student 20 years ago,” she said, referring to a way to specifically communicate with a child's parents. “He turned out really successful.”
Schultheis grew up in Spokane Valley and got a degree in reading from Eastern Washington and Master's in reading.
She knew she wanted to be a teacher since childhood.
“I remember playing school with any neighborhood kid that would,” she said. “I just thought being a teacher would be fun, and it was.”
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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