Keizertimes., July 13, 2018, Page PAGE A3, Image 3

JULY 13, 2018, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A3
KeizerCommunity
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Shop teacher
served MHS
students for
36 years
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
Doug Stuivenga joined
the faculty at McNary High
School 36 years ago because
he wanted to serve.
“I became a teacher be-
cause I think as a Christian
we’re called to lives of service
and I felt like I was providing
a service to Keizer and Keiz-
er’s been beyond kind to me,”
Stuivenga said on his fi nal day
at the high school.
Stuivenga came to Mc-
Nary in 1982 to teach draft-
ing and electronics.
“I didn’t really expect to
stay at one place that long but
the neat thing about my ex-
perience here is that whenev-
er I’ve started to feel like I’ve
done this long enough, things
would change,” Stuivenga
said. “I really had a chance to
do all kinds of different things
over the years and stay in one
school and do it.”
To keep up with the all the
changes in drafting, Stuivenga
took evening classes and went
to summer school.
When he needed industry
experience to become vo-
cational certifi ed, he spent a
summer working at Boeing
Portland.
When McNary didn’t
have enough full-time hours
Stuivenga taught freshmen
and junior English along with
his drafting classes. When
Stuivenga felt like he couldn’t
keep up with the changes in
KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley
Doug Stuivenga taught drafting, electronics, English, technical theatre and was an advisor for the yearbook over his 36 years at
McNary High School.
software of computer draft-
ing, he requested to move to
teaching only English.
“I felt like I needed to
know every single command
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on the software and what it
did and I just couldn’t, and
probably nobody does today
but at that time I thought I
should be able to,” Stuivenga
said.
“It was a great year. It was
really fun. Every period that
came in, I was hotter and
more prepared and my jokes
worked better.”
After a year of teaching
only English, he moved back
to drafting.
“I thought a school this
size really should have draft-
ing so I went back to that
again and built the program
up,” Stuivenga said.
After attending a series of
state-wide planning meet-
ings looking at why schools
weren’t producing enough
students that were prepared
to go into engineering, Stuiv-
enga began emphasizing en-
gineering in his classes.
“If they (students) come in
here to take computer draft-
ing, we’re learning the soft-
ware and how to draw and
make stuff but engineers have
to solve the world’s prob-
lems so now that you have
those skills, here’s a problem
that you have to solve and
you guys are going to be in
a team and work together
and fi gure out a solution,”
Stuivenga said. “What they
are really getting is a precur-
sor to what it’s like to be an
engineer. If they took two or
three years from me, they left
with a really good foundation
with some great life skills and
some ideas of how the world
works.”
Along with drafting and
English, Stuivenga also taught
technical theater and was ad-
visor for McNary’s yearbook
for three years.
“It’s been a lot of fun,”
Stuivenga said. “There’s nev-
er been a day when I didn’t
have a good time when I got
to school, working with kids.
They always amuse and ener-
gize me.”
Stuivenga didn’t plan on
retiring but McNary’s draft-
ing program was dropped in
order to add a Geometry in
Construction course.
Stuivenga was told he
could stay on staff and teach
English.
“I considered it and I
would have a good time but
I thought maybe that’s a good
time to gracefully move on
with my life,” Stuivenga said.
“I could have gone on for-
ever. You’ve got to get up ev-
eryday anyway.”
Stuivenga has a smaller
shop at his home he’ll have
more time for as well as his
hobbies—gardening, hiking
and photography.
“It’s been a little bit bit-
tersweet,” he said. “I’m go-
ing to miss it a lot, especially
these last few years in this
environment. This is as good
as it gets. I’ve got everything
I could ask for and the space
for teaching what it’s like to
be an engineer.”