The "It's Finally Over...Almost: Part II - Almost The End!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Finished my story yesterday after having won the State Championship with my rifle team.  I lasted as the coach one more year after that and had to retire due to hearing loss.  I should have known better, but no one else in the league wore ear protection so I never did either.  And, I'm still paying the price for it.  After my first year at Manheim Township as a teacher I was asked by Ed Blazer, the school yearbook advisor, if I was interested in helping him do the yearbook.  

My classroom at the high school when I retired.  At the
time it was Room 308, but changed when the school enlarged.

Sure, why not! It paid a stipend and I had a new son and a new home at the time, and we were trying to live on a teacher's salary.  I thoroughly enjoyed working on the yearbook, doing the layouts and helping with the photography for the book.  After my first year, 1967-1968, Ed told me he no longer wanted to work with the yearbook, so I was asked to take over the reigns.  I asked Jim Gallagher, the art teacher, if he was interested in helping with the yearbook.  We were a pair until I retired from teaching, 33 years after I began.  After retirement Fromm teaching, I continued with the summer in-house printing for the school district, but did ask another teacher, Mike Zell, if he wanted to help me with the printing.  Mike was an elementary teacher who lived with his wife and three girls a block from our home on Janet Ave. and who happened to be the teacher of our three children in elementary school.  

I can't imagine the number of sheets of paper that went through the
 two presses in this photo when I taught and did the summer printing.

His summers were filled with working on the nearby school playground, but he welcomed the chance to be in an air-conditioned area instead of working outside all summer in the heat.  Took all but a few days to show Mike how to run the press and operate the paper cutter.  It was in 1990 that the President of our Teacher's Association approached me and asked if I would mind if the association nominated me for a Salute to Teachers Award in Lancaster County.  Wow!  Before long I was headed to Harrisburg, PA with my Principal, Mr. Hower and my Department Head, Dean Lemon to accept the award of "Educator of the Year."  Also receiving the award were Donald Kraybill, professor at Elizabethtown College and Kenneth Shields, professor at Millersville University.  

1990 article in the newspaper.

Quite an Honor!  When I retired from teaching in 1999 I was still the yearbook adviser as well as the in-house printer.  I was asked to  remain the in-house printer, but the high school principal said he preferred to have an active teacher as the head of the yearbook.  I agreed.  But, the following day the Principal of the Manheim Township Middle School called and asked me to do his yearbook.  "Name your price," he said.  Well, I have been the advisor to the Middle School book until last year when I retired from that position.  

Going to donate my trusty paper cutter
to a museum in Lancaster, PA.

But, eight years ago Manheim Township School District opened a new building named the "Landis Run Intermediate School" which housed grades 5 and 6.  The principal was on the phone when the school opened and asked if I would do their yearbook.  "Sure, why not," was my response.  So, I was now the yearbook advisor for the Middle School and the Intermediate School.  Well, as I wrote before, last year I gave up the Middle School yearbook and I recently talked with Mike and we both have now decided to retire from our summer printing positions.  But, I have not yet given up my job as the advisor for the Landis Run yearbook yet!  I have been part of the Manheim Township School district since I began as a 1st grader at Milton J. Brecht Elementary School in 1950.  There were only 4 years during college that I have not been a part of MT.  How much longer can I remain?  As long as I can walk through the door of the Landis Run school I guess!  My blood bleeds blue and white, being that they are the school colors.  But, for now I am getting my camera ready for another year of candids at the Intermediate School. Will be a challenging year, to say the least.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.