LOCAL
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, July 7, 2021
A3
Seventh-day Adventist School teacher calls it a career
Webster retires
after 40 years
as an educator,
including 23
in Enterprise
By RONALD BOND
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — Dan
Webster sat Friday, June 25,
at what is now his old desk in
a classroom inside the Enter-
prise Seventh-day Adven-
tist School. Student desks
and chairs were moved to
the side. Computers were
covered to keep them from
gathering dust during the
summer.
“It’s hard to think of this
as not my classroom any-
more,” Webster said. “Still
hear the kids’ voices in here
(from) down through the
years.”
For the last 23 years,
that room has been where
Webster has taught middle
school students that come
through the school, students
whom he hoped to prepare
for the next level of life —
academically, physically and
spiritually.
Webster, an educator for
40 years total, including in
Enterprise since 1998, has
decided it’s time to turn
the whiteboard over to the
next generation of teach-
ers at Enterprise’s Adventist
school.
He quipped that teaching
a student whose mother he
taught previously was per-
haps an indicator it was time
to retire. All kidding aside,
he cited several reasons why
it was time, but noted “more
importantly is I saw my
energy level not being what
it used to be. I never wanted
to rust out at this job. And
I had a really good teacher
(working with me). It was
her fi rst year here, but she is
very organized, so I knew I
was leaving things in good
hands.”
In his blood, but
also called
Both of Webster’s parents
at one point in their careers
were teachers, but the move
into education decades ago,
he said, was because of a
calling from on high.
“Being a Christian, I felt
called to be a teacher, and
there were several things in
my life that made me feel
God had a calling for me —
a couple times when I know
my life was saved mirac-
ulously,” he said. “I was
inspired also by a teacher I
had in high school. That’s
when I fi rst started thinking
about it.
“The doors just seemed
to continue to open and
point me in the direction of
becoming a teacher.”
IN BRIEF
Next Brown Bag
looks at local
health care
JOSEPH — The next
installment of the Brown
Bag series, scheduled for
noon on Tuesday, July 13,
at the Josephy Center for
Arts and Culture, will focus
on health care in Wallowa
County, and specifi cally
what is new with the Wal-
lowa Memorial Hospital and
Clinics.
“The health care sys-
tem in Wallowa County has
come miles from the 1980s,
when Doctors Siebe and
Euhus covered everything,
who were Muslim, Bud-
dhist, Mormon or even of
no belief came through the
doors.
Several students left the
school impacted. He men-
tioned the change in one stu-
dent who started attending in
the middle of a school year.
“He had been in public
school fi rst semester. He was
a character. When he didn’t
know what to say he would
say ‘George Foreman grills.’
But by the time he graduated
that year in eighth grade, I
remember his mom coming
to me in tears saying ‘you
made such a diff erence,’”
Webster said, slowing down
and tearing up himself as he
retold the story. “That’s what
it’s about. There’s a lot of
kids that it made a diff erence
in them being here. Some
of it was socially like that.
Some was scholastically —
the public school giving up
on them.”
He said the biblical prin-
ciples leave an impact,
regardless of belief. And
in teaching that is where
he found success for four
decades, preparing students
for what would lie ahead.
“If you teach those Chris-
tian values, whether you are
a Christian or not, you’ll see
changes in kids, and I think
a lot of parents — we had
a Mormon family that had
a number of kids here, fi ve
of their kids here,” he said.
“She was one that again was
in tears and said we are so
thankful the school is here
for our kids, and that you
taught our kids. That makes
you feel like your career is
a success when you make
a diff erence in kids’ lives.
They either accept Christ
or have a stronger relation-
ship with Him, they’re well
prepared as they go on from
there to go onto the next
level of education.”
Charles Darwin, he said, was
not knowing what is known
today about cell structure.
“Even if all the molecules
are in this primordial soup,
for them to get together and
fi rm the structures of the cell
we see today, if you did sta-
tistics ... it goes way beyond
possibility,” he said.
The soft-spoken Webster
has a very strong stance, too,
against teaching evolution,
and says it gives children no
meaning.
“I think it’s almost child
abuse to teach evolution to
kids, that it’s fact, because
(it asks) why are you here?
Why is the kid here? There’s
no importance, no value,” he
said. “I was raised in a Chris-
tian home, and always felt I
had infi nite value because
God was willing to die for
me. It makes a big diff erence
to kids to have that world
view.”
Beyond the theory
Ronald Bond/Wallowa County Chieftain
Dan Webster fl ips through a science book used at the Enterprise Seventh-day Adventist School.
Webster, an educator for 40 years, including 23 in Enterprise, has retired from his post.
Webster, who graduated
from Walla Walla Univer-
sity with a masters in biol-
ogy and with chemistry and
math minors, was a high
school science teacher for 17
years in four diff erent states.
He moved to Enterprise in
1997, seeking to take a sab-
batical and to spend more
time with and to teach his
own children — who were
reaching high-school age —
at home.
“During that year, the
school’s number swelled to
where they needed help,” he
said. “In the winter, begin-
ning of ‘98, I came and
worked part time, and they
decided to go to two teach-
ers. That’s what kind of led
us here. Once we were here,
the job opened up. This job
opened up, and I felt at that
point the Lord had led me to
this place. The next year in
‘98 — fall of ‘98 — I went
on full time here.”
Among the changes was
a move to teaching all sub-
jects as opposed to just sci-
ences, and teaching multi-
ple grades. He largely taught
including the emergency
room,” a press release from
the Josephy Center states,
noting that there now are 10
general practice physicians,
several nurse practitioners
and physician assistants, a
surgeon and an orthopedist.
There will also be a new
clinic in Wallowa in 2022.
This Brown Bag will
serve to keep attendees up
to speed, asking questions
such as “What is the role
of the Hospital Founda-
tion?” “How does the hos-
pital relate to the clinics?”
“Where do physical therapy
and counselling fi t in?” and
more.
WMH
Chief
Nurs-
ing Offi cer Jenni Word
and new Physicians Assis-
We have your
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fi fth through eighth graders
during his time in Enterprise.
Creation or evolution?
Webster has a very diff er-
ent take from most science
teachers on how the universe
came to be — a biblical one.
“That’s actually been an
area of interest to me, and
I’ve spent a lot of time on
that,” he said. “I’ve actu-
ally developed a series of
talks about evolution and
creation. Many scientists
believe in design. They
don’t go out and say ‘God,’
but they say ‘design,’ or
‘intelligent design.’”
He would explain what
evolutionists believe to give
his students the background
knowledge, but then would
explain to them the fl aws in
the theory.
“When you actually start
taking a look at it, the sta-
tistical possibilities become
mind-bending that would
have to take place,” he said.
“I just did a talk not long ago
about how a lot of people are
seeing how fi ne-tuned the
universe is, and how many
tant Paul Solis will lead the
discussion.
Brown Bags are free and
open to the public. The event
will be live in person, but
can also be viewed online.
Contact the Josephy Cen-
ter at 541-432-0505, or
visit josephy.org for more
information.
Weekly chess club
returns to Josephy
Center
things had to come together
in order to have a livable or
habitable planet here.”
One specifi c example he
pointed to is how life began.
“When you look at the
Precambrian Explosion in
the fossil record, all of a
sudden there is lots of diff er-
ent groups represented. And
they are complex organ-
isms,” he said. “So the fi rst
fossils we have are organ-
isms that are complex.
They’re not as complex as
us, but they are complex.
They are not single-cell
organisms.
“It’s like life all of a sud-
den went ‘poof,’ and the
Precambrian Explosion is
the term evolutionists give
it. But how do you get the
molecules necessary to
even make a simple cell? If
you think you are going to
start with a simple cell —
cells aren’t simple. They
are extremely complex.
The information in them is
extremely complex. We con-
tinue to learn more about
that.”
Part of what handicapped
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JOSEPH — The weekly
chess club at the Josephy
Center for Arts and Culture is
back, starting Thursday, July
8 at the center.
The free club, open to all
ages, runs Thursdays from
4-6 p.m.
Meet Copper
& Starsky!
A bonded pair born approximately
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on vaccines, dewormed and are litter
box trained. These two cuties are from
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E
Webster taught all sub-
jects, including the Bible,
where the intent was telling
students who Jesus was.
“We weren’t here neces-
sarily to try and evangelize
the kids into our denomina-
tion,” he said. “We mainly
wanted to use the Bible to
introduce them to Christ
and help them to understand
more of what His character
was, and what He was like.”
Some years, the study
would be a look at Genesis.
Others, it would be an exam-
ination of the Gospels.
“This last year we went
through the book of John,
the life of Christ, His cruci-
fi xion and resurrection,” he
said.
He said the teaching
given at the Adventist school
had an impact, even on stu-
dents who attended and were
of a diff erent belief, noting,
for example, that students
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