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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.
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