This is a wonderful letter from Greg McCurdy: Thirty-six years ago Max Bedwell hired me to teach Biology at Salem High School. Images of that day are as vivid as if it all happened yesterday. Mrs. Barrett was scurrying around the office copying papers, answering the phone, filing, and typing while listening to the Dictaphone in her “one woman army” fashion that she always did. I remember meeting Paul Scifres who took me on a tour of the building and showed me where my classroom would be. As we strolled around the facility Paul introduced me to head football coach, Paul Jolly, who seemed to be a very personable fellow. On my way out of town I stopped by a little place called Gilstrap’s (about where McDonald’s is now) and bought one of the best Cokes that I can ever remember drinking. It was a fountain drink that had finely shaved iced reminiscent of the old time soda fountains. While driving up for my interview all the while I was thinking about how long the drive was, though on that day, driving around the block would have felt like an eternity. After I got off the phone with Mr. Bedwell I thought, “OK, I can give this a try for a year but if a better offer comes along next year closer to the Ohio River then I’m outta here.” On the first day of the school year at our in-service Mr. Bedwell pulled all of the new teachers into his tiny little office for a quick orientation. I remember that there were five of us: Jeannie Apple, Carolyn Holsapple, Doris Duffy, and a special education teacher whose name escapes me and who only stuck around a year or so. Down through the years all of those first year people have become very special to me. We have all shared laughs and tears. We have married off our kids and comforted each other as we mourned the loss of family and students. I soon met fellow staff members David and Carolyn Beck, Jackie Arnold, Bernice Anderson, Lee John Fultz, and a whole raft of other teachers who, as years went on, became my family away from home. What I hadn’t figured on was that the kids I had at Salem were different from the city kids at New Albany High School where I had done my student teaching. The difference I found was a good kind of different. At my first open house, I felt like a movie star. Kids were dragging their parents through my room and introducing them to me as if they were proud that I was their teacher. In those first years having some of the kids of other teachers in class and meeting community members like Leonard and Truly Chastain, Steve and Mike Motsinger, and the Newkirk tribe had me convinced. The people of Salem and Washington County had redefined the meaning of the word hospitality for me. It also convinced me that the Ohio River was getting farther and farther from appearing like Eden. Thirty-six years and a couple of generations of students later I find that so many students, parents, grandparents, community members, business people, and alumni have become my friends and family. My passion for learning has taken me to workshops in several different states including the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, the University of Miami in Ohio, and the University of Louisville School of Medicine. My service to the Hoosier Association of Science Teachers has taken me to Washington, DC, to St. Paul, Minnesota, and to Ontario, Canada. When I meet people at these meetings and they ask me “Where are you from?” my answer is, “I sleep in New Albany, Indiana, but I live in Salem, Indiana.” I have been made an ex-officio member of this community by those that I am around each day. With the genesis of the Washington County Community Foundation I discovered a new way to appreciate the Salem/Washington County community. A fund was established in Jack Mahuron’s honor which helps educators purchase materials for the classroom. I applied for and received a $350.00 grant to purchase a portable X-ray viewer like ones used in a courtroom that I could use in teaching Anatomy and Physiology. I established a partnership with the Radiology Department at the hospital to obtain copies of anonymous X-rays and CT scans and designed lesson plans around the materials that I received. The kids loved it and began bringing in image films of their own broken bones, Aunt Sally’s kidney stones, and grandpa’s barium enema. Salem High School Science Club applied for a grant from the Washington County Youth Foundation to design, produce, and distribute fliers door to door advising citizens of the perils of dumping unwanted chemical’s like used motor oil down the storm drains where those chemicals end up fouling our local streams. The grant also allowed us to purchase storm drain markers and adhesive which members used to mark every storm drain in the Salem area with an emblem that had a frog on it and a warning “Do not dump – Runs to creek”. When my good friend, Larry Stephenson (another long story), was hired to teach biology in the room next to mine we were delighted at the fresh, lively approach that he brought to the science department at SHS. Larry unfortunately developed a malignant brain tumor in his second year of teaching and fought a losing battle with cancer that eventually took his life. Larry had made a lasting impression on many kids, parents, and faculty. Larry had many long talks with science teacher, Steve Riggle, and me about the fact that he didn’t want to have a funeral home full of expensive flowers that would last two days and then be forgotten. We concluded that a good way for Larry to be remembered would be through a scholarship. I approached Judy Johnson with the idea and Judy and I worked out the details to establish a perpetual memorial scholarship that would be awarded to a graduating senior at Salem High School on honors day each year. We established criteria for the scholarship and faculty, students, administrators, family, friends, and former teachers contributed to Larry’s fund. Student groups conducted fund raising events and the fund was established in remarkable time. Never underestimate the power of a group of students when they make up their minds to do something. My wife and I continue to donate to Larry’s fund annually. We also find that when there is a need to give a gift to someone who has everything, a donation to the community foundation in their name makes a wonderful gift. We have often sent donations to the community foundation in memory of lost friends or loved ones. My retirement is soon approaching and my plans are to establish a fund that will establish a scholarship for a SHS student who plans to major in a biological field, including medicine. The foundation is all about helping people. The foundation has helped me and the foundation has helped my students. I have so many, many projects that the WCCF has supported. We can all be proud of how the foundation has grown under the most awesome administration of its board of directors, Judy Johnson, and Lindsey Wade-Swift. Consider how you want others to remember you. Starting a fund, contributing to a fund, setting up an endowment, or establishing some other way to touch the lives of Washington County residents is what the foundation is all about. I have been so impressed with how Washington County residents are all about people helping people. I carry a key chain that I received from the foundation that I keep school keys on. Each day when I reach for my keys, a touch of the keys is a reminder of how the foundation touches lives of people who live here. The Washington County Community Foundation has touched so many lives in so many ways through the unselfish acts of its members. Think about it and give Judy a call. Touch a neighbor, a friend, a student, a family member, a co-worker, or a group today and make something positive happen in the life of someone who means something to you. Warmly, Greg McCurdy SHS Biology Teacher/Foundation Donor, Grantee and Proud Supporter
Posted on: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 11:17:56 +0000
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