Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (June 2, 1999)
I wr r iv i ,u ,i w&yui i »» v v jiiv d u a y t June c, i ~ l nrNLL Two longtime Heppner teachers say goodbye to students this year When the students say goodbye to their classmates at the end of this school year they will also say goodbye to two beloved, much admired teachers--Al Beck at Heppner Jumor/Semor High School and Karen Dubuque at Heppner Elementary School, both of whom are ending 30-year teaching careers, all 30 of those years for both spent in Morrow County. Brownfield and Conklin, who played against high school kids in Friday games. The basketball games are a thing of the past, but the running stuck. Beck ran his first race in 1979 and started getting competitive in 1982. He ran the Boston Marathon in 1981, has run the Hood to Coast Run every year since 1984, and now is running in Master's Track meets, which are like high school track meets for competitors 40 and over. He also likes to play golf, but only for fun. The Becks, who will be married 30 years June 7, have two grown children, Michelle and Daniel., both of whom live in Portland. After 30 years of stimulating the minds of students and often challenging the way they think, A1 Beck, Heppner High School social studies teacher, has announced his retirement. Beck, 52, who has taught in Heppner for his entire 30-year career, will retire this June, to the dismay of many of his students. It's not hard to figure out why Beck's a favorite teacher at Heppner High School. He comes alive before a classroom. Able to erase the years spanning the generation gap, Beck makes "ancient" history, such as the Vietnam War, relevant to today's students. Part of Beck's appeal is that he is interested in what the kids have to say and they know it. "My favorite class is law," said Beck, "because the kids argue more than they do in other classes. The kids tend to argue less in social studies. In law class Karen Dubuque Always positive and sensitive they don't mind at all disagreeing to the feelings of her young with me. I guess it's the nature of charges, Heppner Elementary the class." Beck says that the neat School teacher Karen Dubuque, part about law is that it is always who will retire this year, has current, is constantly changing and is even more accessible to nothing but wonderful things to classrooms via the Internet and e- say about her students, their mail. "I have set lesson plans," parents and her co-workers. "The children I've had over the says Beck, "but if something years are just really nice. I'm comes up we can talk about it." proud that I was a teacher. I've An inquiry this year about a always felt I've had such great Native American who was help from my school parents," charged with illegally selling says DubuqOe. "They have really eagle feathers and claws and supported me. I will also miss went before the Supreme Court on federal charges evolved into a working With the staff because they are such dedicated people. visit to the man's Web page and They work each day to make eventually a phone conversation Heppner Elementary a nice place with him. Another appeal of law, to be." says Beck, is that it is varied Dubuque, over her 307year enough that there is something > career, 28 of those years in interesting to everyone and each Heppner, has also worked to class is different. What make Heppner Elementary a very stimulates one class and results nice place to be— and it shows, in ' in several days' discussion, may the faces of her young students not even cause a ruffle in the next and their parents, some of whom year's class. were Dubuque's students many Besides law, Beck has taught a variety of subjects, such as social years ago. "The kids sometimes call you 'mama', but now they studies, global studies and U.S. call me 'grandma,"'she says with history, to a multitude of students a laugh. from the fifth grade on up At a youthful 52 years, through high school seniors. however, Dubuque isn't ready for Beck received his bachelor's the rocking chair. She has quite a degree from the Oregon College few plans for her retirement, of Education at Monmouth (now including "having a really nice Western Oregon University) in garden," playing a lot of golf and 1968 in social studies and came to work at Heppner Junior High doing some traveling with her School in 1969, while the husband, Doug, starting with a Vietnam War was still underway. cruise to Mexico this summer "When I started in 1969, World "It's been a really rewarding War II was 24 years old. The experience," laughs Dubuque, Vietnam War is "now" to me but "but now I'm ready to go out to it's just as ancient history to the recess." Dubuque is herself a Morrow kids now as World War II was to County alumnus. She attended me. When A1 and his wife, Karen, also a teacher at Heppner Junior/Senior High, first came to Morrow County, they lived in lone, where she had a teaching job. He commuted from Heppner to lone with another long-time teacher, Dale Conklin. In 1975, Beck received his master's degree in U.S. history and in 1985 the Becks moved to Heppner. He moved up to Heppner High School in 1995 when the high school and junior high consolidated. Beck says that the biggest change over the years has occurred in the girls. "The boys are pretty much the same," says Beck. "The girls now are more willing to speak their minds and are more honest. They see themselves as more equal to the boys and hey see themselves as athletes in their own right." However, he adds, "Kids are still kids, even though their problems are somewhat different now than they were." Even the clothes are much the same, he says, although when he first started teaching the girls could not wear pants. A of couple girls who had very strong feelings about that issue prompted class discussion about the subject, which resulted in the formation of a dress code committee and a subsequent dress code. That early dress code is not too different from that in force today, he says. An avid runner. Beck first In started running to get in shape for basketball with fellow long-time teachers Les Payne, Steve It first grade in lone, moved to Heppner in the second grade and graduated from Heppner High School in 1965. After high school she went to Eastern Oregon State College one year and then transferred to Oregon State University where she graduated in 1969 with a degree in elementary education. After receiving her degree, she returned to Heppner and married her husband. She had an idea to apply for a library aide job, but Ron Daniels, the school superintendent at the time, told her she should apply instead for a second grade teacher position in lone. Needless to say, she got the job and taught in lone for two years before accepting a position as a second grade teacher at Heppner Elementary, where she has been ever since. Dubuque started teaching in lone the same year as Karen Beck did. "We were known as the Dubecks,'" jokes Dubuque. "We kept a pretty tight playground." Dubuque says that children are expected to know so much more now than when she began her career "The requirements for them have really stepped up over the years," she says. "But, kids also read more for pleasure now." What did she enjoy most about teaching? Of course, it's the kids. "The kids are always the nice part." Dubuque. "I love the mornings when the kids come in and everyone has something to tell you. It's just a wonderful time. I'm sure when September comes and everyone goes off to school, I'm going to miss it." Bert Mason wins surveying mm excellence award Al Beck Lordy, Lordyl Look w ho on th e creek turned 40! H A P P Y B IR T H D A Y , JRY Çift Suggestions fo r Dati: 'Biadi SÛÎts Çotd tie tacs and ‘Watcfibands Bert Mason March 14 was an exciting night for Bert Mason at the meeting of the Western Federation of Pj;ofe^jpnal purveyors' of Oregon and the American Congress of Surveying and Mapping in Portland. In the company of his friends and hundreds of his surveying peers, Mason accepted the 1999 National Society of Professional Surveyors "Excellence in Surveying Award". This award is given to an individual who has performed outstanding service to the surveying profession. Mason was bom and raised in lone where his father was in business. After high school he spent three years at Oregon State College studying in the school of forestry. During WWII he was in the Navy’s First Aerial Photographic Mapping Squadron serving in Guadalcanal. After the war he returned home and married Ellen Nelson and continued his education at Syracuse University, graduating in 1947 from the school of photogrammetry. He w,as licensed,, a, professional land surveyor ol Oregon m 1954 and has .worked in that field for some 40 years. He now lives in Oakgrove and is still executive secretary of the Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon. He is known to have helped numerous surveyors over the years with special problems because of his extensive surveying knowledge. 4 ' t *n I m 4 MOTI i V i h»vi *tio<t ^ n in n iti * • ». » r W e Print / Business Cards Gazette-Times 676-9228 Peterson's Heppner Jewelers / ( y ut-nw GET ON THE WEB! www.heppner.net Carl: I bet I've driven a rig full of chickens through every town in Oiegon. Pelican: Carl: And y'know, everywhere I go I see you and your friendly bank. 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