Mark Retiring

Brother Mark is retiring after 39 years of teaching in the Clinton, Ia schools. Mark is a 1967 grad of the prestigious Savanna High School. (It was really the Illinois Math & Science Academy first). He went on to be a political science major at Knox College. Upon graduating, he took a variety of jobs before deciding to get a teaching certificate. He chose to go to the University of Arizona at Tucson for his degree as at that time they did not have out of state tuition.

He applied in Arizona as well as in the Savanna area. He was hired to teach at Lyons Jr High in Clinton. Ironically it is where our mother got her first teaching job. After a few years, he transferred to Clinton HS, where he has been since.



He has had tremendous success at Clinton as the volleyball coach. He has won over 700 games while there. One of the neatest things is that he has had both his son, Evan, and his daughter, Sarah as students in his classroom and as players on his teams.

I don't know for sure but it sounded to like me that coaching Evan in junior high basketball may not have been one of the most successful experiences in their father-son relationship. As a student, Evan claims his dad would not call on him, so his solution was he just talked and answered questions without being called on.

Not sure how Sarah's classroom experience went but I was very impressed by both Sarah and Mark how they handled the father-daughter coaching relationship. I know some of Mark's greatest joy was being able to coach her. He hopes to continue coaching volleyball, hopefully it will work out for him.

He is a prolific reader, mainly non-fiction. I don't know how many times my mom would say to me, "I don't know what happened, you used to like to read, I don't know why you can't read like Mark."

I am confident Mark will enjoy retirement. He is always driving some place, wanting to see something, and especially hanging out in Wisconsin. Maybe it is time for him to write a book instead of reading books!

Happy retirement.