Kermit Wigen hangs it up after 31 years at LaCrosse

With its many accessories and blade options, the Swiss Army Knife provides versatility in a compact form. For the past 31 years, Kermit Wigen has been the LaCrosse School’s version of a Swiss Army Knife, useful in whatever capacity needed.

“In a small school, you have to be good at something, but sometimes it’s more important to be able to do lots of little things,” said Wigen.

He said he has decided to retire from LaCrosse because of personal issues.

Since 1979, Wigen taught industrial arts, physical education, speech, drama, social studies, and virtually any other subject offered to LaCrosse students. And that versatility, as well as Wigen’s commitment to his community, paid off.

In 2001, Wigen was awarded by then-Gov. Gary Locke the Washington Award for Excellence in Education.

“That’s something I have to give to our administration. They’re always looking for ways to show off our staff and our school,” said Wigen. “To tell you the truth, I’ve never considered myself in any way a particularly excellent teacher in any area.”

Wigen began teaching at Bickleton in 1973, after graduating from Eastern Washington University - though he almost didn’t.

“I was one day from giving it up,” he said. “One day.”

But inspiration, and a little prodding, from his wife, Jolene, and his father kept him in school, where he eventually graduated.

After six years at Bickleton, he was hired at LaCrosse, where he had graduated in 1967.

“I wasn’t planning on coming to LaCrosse, but it turned out okay for 31 years,” said Wigen. “But 31 years later, I’m so glad I had the opportunity to teach and to teach here at home. It’s been a blessing. I loved getting up every day and going to work.”

Over the years, he saw a lot of changes in the teaching profession. Most notably, he said, students can now access information at high speed.

“We used to have piles and piles of encyclopedias around,” he said. “Now they just take their laptops home and have it all right there.”

Wigen also said that speed of progress has made teachers spend more time learning.

“It used to be that we never left the classroom,” he said. “But now, with conferences and in-service training sessions, we’re constantly learning.”

For an admittedly-old dog, those new tricks can be tough, but Wigen said his students always injected him with a dose of youth.

“One day I was having a down day and one of my students asked me what was wrong,” he said. “So I told him I was losing my marbles.”

The student then asked how many marbles Wigen had.

“I told him I started with 25, but now I have about 13,” said Wigen.

The next day, the sixth-grader presented Wigen with a bag of marbles from his collection.

In addition to teaching, Wigen coached or assisted in coaching dozens of Tigercat basketball, track and football teams.

He also helped organize the LaCrosse senior class’s annual end-of-year trip to Hawaii.

Kermit and Jolene have now moved to Pullman where they plan to live during retirement.