Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, June 10, 1998 - THREE
Two longtime educators retire from Heppner High School
Two longtime Heppner High
School teachers have announced
their retirement. Social studies
teacher Dale Conklin and
counselor Barbara Hayes will
leave their teaching positions at
the end of this school year.
Dale Conklin
Conklin, 58, is originally from
Eastern Oregon. Bom and raised
in LaGrande, he graduated from
LaGrande High School and
attended Willamette University
for two years. He left school for
a while and got a job as sports
editor at the LaGrande Observer
from 1960-62. He was then
drafted into the Army where his
job was to put out a post
newspaper. H t also coached
basketball and softball at the
military base at Fort Wolters,
Texas.
After his stint in the military,
Conklin transferred to Eastern
Oregon State College where he
got a job as the college's sports
information director. In that
position he was responsible for
putting out press guides and
press releases and keeping stats
at ball games—for a $100 a
month. This job also whetted his
appetite for athletics, which
became an important part of his
career.
Conklin graduated from EOSC
with a bachelor of science in both
history and education. He also
got a bit of advice from a
professor, which was apropos at
that tim e- if you want to get a
teaching job, you need to coach.
His first job offer came along,
which did, indeed, include a
coaching position and he jumped
it. He was hired to teach at
Klickitat High School and also
coached three sports-football,
basketball and baseball.
After two years at Klickitat,
Conklin and his wife, Linda,
decided to return to their native
Oregon and he was hired at
Heppner High School to teach
social studies. "I knew I wanted
to live in Eastern Oregon," he
said. "My wife is originally from
Union and I'm from LaGrande
and we wanted to get a little
closer to home. I certainly have
not regretted being here. It's a
great place to live."
Over the years at HHS Conklin
has
taught
U.S.
history,
psychology,
government,
sociology,
global
studies,
personal finance and economics
and has been assistant football
coach and assistant track coach.
In 1976 he became head track
coach and in 1984 became the
athletic director. As HHS head
track coach Conklin has taken
members of the track team to the
state championships every year
but two. "I'm very proud of our
track teams," says Conklin. The
boys' track team won the state
championship in 1988 and the
team has had 15 individual state
championships since he was
named head coach.
Conklin observes that teaching
has changed a great deal over the
years. "You no longer can just
teach full-time," he says.
"There's a lot of paperwork and
other distractions." Conklin says
he is proud of the job teachers
do at HHS. "I've always thought
at Heppner High School that we
have done an excellent job of
preparing our kids for college,"
he says. But, he added, "We
probably have not done as good a
job for the kids who are not
going to college." He says that
the HHS work study program and
the new state-wide CIM and
CAM program may help place
more emphasis on students going
right into the work force.
Conklin sees both good and"
bad in the CIM and CAM
programs. "About every 10
years, we go though changes.
The experts aren't always sure
which way to go," he says. "The
CIM and the CAM are largely
performance based and that's
good. But one of the negative
things for teachers is the amount
of paperwork that has to be done.
There's an awful lot of
recording."
Conklin says that the biggest
change he has seen in education
over the years is in the kids. "I
The Official Newspaper
of the City of Heppner and the County of Morrow
Heppner
GAZETTE-TIMES
U.S.P.S. 240-420
Morrow County’s Home-Owned Weekly Newspaper
Published weekly and entered as periodical matter at the Post Office at Heppner, Oregon
under the ActofMarch3, 1879 Periodical postage paid at Heppner, Oregon. Office at 147
W Willow Street. Telephone (541) 676-9228. Fax (541) 676-9211. E-mail:
gt@rapidserve net. Postmaster send address changes to the Heppner Gazette-Times, P.O.
Box 337, Heppner, Oregon 97836. Subscriptions: $18 in Morrow, Wheeler, Gilliam and
Grant counties; $25 elsewhere
David Sykes........................................................................................................ Publisher
April Hilton-Sykes.................................................................................................. Editor
FATHER’S DAY GIFTS
For That Special Dad
( I I M
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don't think the kids get as much
support or direction from home
and school isn't as important."
But, he added," Still there is a
number of parents who are
extremely supportive and their
kids are the ones who have the
greatest amount of success."
Conklin says he plans to
continue coaching track and will
possibly continue as athletic
director at HHS after retirement.
"I'm not ready to give everything
up at once," he laughs. Conklin
officially retired in March, but
taught through the end of the
school year. He adds that he will
probably have some "honey-do"
projects at home, since teaching
and coaching have taken up a lot
of his time. He also plans to
make sure that he has plenty of
time for bird hunting and "any
kind of fishing".
Conklin and his wife, Linda,
have been married since 1965.
They have four grown children:
Ashley, who is a sports reporter
for
the
East
Oregonian
Newspaper in Pendleton; Jill who
teaches in the Douglas School
District in Winston; Sheryl, who
works at an assisted care facility
in Milton-Freewater; and Mark,
who is an accountant for a
computer company in Tigard.
They also have one grandson,
Bradley. Linda is a bookkeeper
and receptionist at Morrow
County Grain Growers in
Lexington.
Barbara Hayes
Heppner High School
counselor Barbara Hayes will
end a 13-year career at the school
when she retires at the end of the
month.
Hayes has not only been the
counselor, but has also been the
media specialist and has often
been
called
into
service
videotaping games and special
events over the years, which has
amounted to long hours on the
job.
Hayes was bom in Santa
Barbara, CA. The family moved
to San Luis Obispo, where her
father owned a grocery store.
There they lived in a Spanish
land adobe house. They moved to
Bakersfield, CA, where her
father grew cotton, before
moving two years later to
Ashland. She graduated from
Ashland High School, whose
mascot is the grizzly. "So I'm a
grizzly,"
laughs
Hayes.
"Occasionally the kids agree with
me.
After high school, Hayes went
to Oregon State College, initially
majoring in business. She
changed her major to education
and was the last class to graduate
from OSC before it became a
university. She received a
bachelor of science degree in
business education.
Her first job after graduation
was at newly-opened Marshall
High School in southeast
"
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and this year she was named
honorary Chapter Farmer by the
HHS FFA Chapter. She is also a
member of the Oregon Trail
Library Board and the Morrow
County Commission on Children
and Families.
Hayes will work through June
and plans to be on hand later to
help the new counselor, Kay
McKenzie, in transition. She says
that she will also have "plenty to
do" at the Hayes' ranch, "The
Flying H". She also enjoys
camping and plans to develop her
expertise in fishing, a favorite
pastime of her husband's.
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Portland where she taught typing,
bookkeeping and business law.
There were more kids in her
classes at Marshall, which was
built around the same time as
HHS, than there are in grades
nine-12 at HHS.
Hayes and her husband, Jim,
met at college and were married
in 1961 at Pensacola, FLA. Jim,
who was in the Navy, completed
flight training school and then
the couple moved to San Diego.
He served in Vietnam from
1963-65, before the
war
escalated. Haves staved in San
Diego while he was in Vietnam,
and worked as a legal secretary.
She worked full-time before their
son Jay was bom in 1964 and
then worked part-time. After Jim
was discharged from the service
they moved to Yakima where he
worked as a crop duster. From
there they moved to Medford and
Jim commuted from there to San
Francisco where he got a job
flying for Pan Am. Their second
son, Loran, was bom in 1968.
Hayes substituted quite a bit
for several years and then got a
part-time job working for the
Britt Music Festival in Ashland
as manager.
In 1976, Pam Am, facing
financial problems, laid off 300
workers, including Jim. The
family moved to Heppner, where
Jim was bom and still had a
family farm. Hayes worked as a
court clerk for Morrow County.
After Jim started a Farmer's
Insurance office in Heppner,
Hayes worked there as office
manager for a while before
returning to the court system, this
time with the state.
Hayes then decided to return to
teaching and updated her
certificate at PSU. She was hired
at HHS in 1985 and was high
school librarian for several years
before all certified media
specialists were eliminated from
the district school budget
because of budget cuts. HHS
didn't have a school counselor at
the time, so Hayes went back to
school at PSU to update her
certificate. She was then hired as
HHS counselor, a position she
has held ever since, with the
exception of a year's leave of
absence when she traveled to
Europe. At that time, her
husband had since returned to
Pan Am and piloted planes from
Frankfurt, Germany, to Berlin.
Her son, Jay was also stationed
in Frankfurt. Besides visiting
with her husband and son in
Germany, she traveled to Italy,
Switzerland, Austria, Ireland and
England and then traveled in the
U.S. before returning home.
Hayes says that she is especially
proud of the number of
scholarships HHS seniors are
awarded each year. "I've worked
hard to build up the scholarship
program," says Hayes. "Probably
my most fulfilling year was when
the graduating class of 1995 got
over $235,000 in scholarships.
The seniors that year got some
really fantastic scholarships." In
1995 she was also named citizen-
educator of the year by the