Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
For seven retirees, last Thursday’s conclusion of the school year marked the end of more than 150 years of combined service to the Colfax School District.
Tony Carter’s 36 years at Jennings Elementary and Colfax High School and Peggy Kehne’s 34 years at Jennings lead a group which has taught two generations of Colfax students.
Tony Carter
After his first job as an elementary/high school P.E. teacher in Kahlotus, Carter came to Colfax High School in 1977.
Since then he has taught world history, geography, civics, Pacific Northwest history, driver’s education and P.E., along with many years as a fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth-grade teacher at Jennings Elementary.
In addition, Carter has coached high school varsity baseball and wrestling teams and has been a football assistant for 36 years.
All told, it’s been a 41-year career.
“I just got old enough, I guess,” he said of his reason to retire. “Got wise enough.”
He plans to continue to serve on Mike Morgan’s football staff, for which he coaches line and is designated “Director of Field Operations.”
“I do all the stuff they don’t want to do,” Carter said.
While his reign in the classroom ended last week, he will go on to teach driver’s education once more this summer at Colfax.
From there he plans to continue teaching new drivers, either for the Colfax district or elsewhere.
“I’ll take it easier for a bit and see how things work out,” Carter said. “But I’ll be doing something with it.”
As he retires from full-time teaching, Carter said he’ll miss the students.
“After 40 years, you see so many kids, you have so many relationships,” he said. “I’ve got kids, and kids who have grown up and have their own families who come by and say hi all the time.”
“I haven’t started cleaning out my room,” Carter said before the last day of classes. “After 40 years, you get a lot of stuff.”
As a student himself, Carter wrestled and played football at Eastern Washington where he earned his degree in Physical Education.
“It’s been a good time, a good career,” he said. “I really enjoyed the community support, the parents and the kids.”
Peggy Kehne
The old “Powell Plumbing and Heating” sign in downtown Colfax marks the business owned and operated by Peggy Kehne’s father Harold while she grew up. Kehne graduated from Colfax High School in 1968 and retired last week from 34 years as a teacher at Jennings.
After earning an education degree at WSU in 1971, Kehne began her teaching career in Spokane’s Central Valley District where she taught for three years before returning to Colfax in 1974. She taught kindergarten and early elementary grades until 1978 when her husband John was transferred to Dayton in his banking career. She continued teaching there, instructing in the migrant program for the children of asparagus workers, before taking a year away for the birth of her son Brian.
In 1983, when John was transferred to Seafirst Bank in Colfax, Kehne returned to Jennings. From 1990 on, she taught second grade.
“It was just time,” she said of deciding to retire this spring. “After 41 years, it’s time to expand my horizons and do some other things. I have loved my job. I have loved being a teacher. I’ve looked forward to coming to school every day.”
She said that her and John will do some traveling and visit family and friends.
“I’ve wanted to be a teacher since I was a little girl,” Kehne said. “My dream came true, and I’ve had a wonderful experience.”
Connie McBride
Last week was the completion of Connie McBride’s 21st year teaching at Jennings Elementary. It was also the end of her 26–year career.
“It’s been wonderful,” she said. “A wonderful way to spend my life. I’ve never thought, and I don’t think anyone has ever heard me say, ‘I’m going to work. It’s always been, ‘I’m going to school.’ For me it wasn’t work.”
After graduating from Potlatch High School in 1960 and getting a degree from University of Idaho in Home Economics, McBride started her career in Yakima, as a Reading and Home Economics teacher at Washington Junior High School.
From there, her and husband Ed went to Brandenburg, Ky., where he was stationed at Fort Knox with the Army at the beginning of the Vietnam War.
They returned to Whitman County after two years and McBride taught at Garfield Junior/Senior High School for three years before staying home to raise their children.
After 14 years, she returned to the school at Garfield, which was now Garfield-Palouse Middle School. Teaching Home Economics and the Gifted and Talented program, she then went to Colfax to lead first, second, third and fourth grades since 1992.
Also in 1997 McBride earned a Masters Degree in Curriculum and Supervision at Gonzaga University.
She retires as a third grade teacher at Jennings Elementary.
“I have four grandchildren, two who have been in Phoenix most of the time, now all of them are in Seattle,” McBride said. “So I plan to visit them as much as I can and there are just some things I want to do for God. Some kind of mission work, I’m waiting to see.”
McBride is a member of the United Methodist Church.
“I’m going to miss the kids and the staff,” she said. “And the challenge of every day meeting a group of eager youngsters ready to learn.”
Judy Moore
A farmer’s daughter and a farmer’s wife, Judy Moore began her teaching career at Endicott in 1966.
She will retire this week after teaching there, LaCrosse and Colfax, including the last 20 years at Jennings Elementary. Along the way, she has taught art, math and social studies at the grade and high school levels, along with self-contained fifth, sixth and second grade.
“I just decided, my husband and I wanted to spend more time with grandchildren,” Moore said. “I just want to not miss anything more of my grandchildren.”
This week, she is accompanying son-in-law Corey Baerlocher, a teacher at Steptoe Elementary, on the school’s seventh-eighth grade trip to New York and Washington, D.C.
Moore will be a chaperone, visiting places she has never been.
“So this is really special,” she said.
Moore indicated that the rewards of her career were many.
“The kids. The kids. The kids,” she said. “I enjoy getting to know each and every one of them. To meet them where they are so we can grow together. They learn from me and I learn from them.”
Moore grew up in Colfax and graduated from WSU. She said she will be a substitute teacher for the Colfax District next fall.
Kathy Kammerzell
As a girl, she went to school in Albion, where each row of desks was a different grade.
Last week, as a wife, mother and grandmother, Kathy Kammerzell retired as Food Services Director of Colfax High School.
“I think it’s time,” she said. “I’m old enough to retire. I’ll go home, enjoy my home, grandkids, friends.”
Kammerzell retires after serving two spans at the high school, from 1988-1997 and 2005 to present.
“I love the kids,” she said. “And the ladies I worked with, they’re great. All the staff too. They’re all good people.”
Kammerzell said her job has changed over time, most of it in recent years.
“All the new rules, the government, I don’t know where to start,” she said. “More paperwork, just a lot of little rules that make it harder.”
During the time she worked for the school, four of her five children graduated from Colfax High School. Kammerzell’s husband Monte is also a Colfax High alumni (1955). She has two grandchildren who have graduated from C.H.S. in the past three years.
Kammerzell’s last day was June 6.
Last week, as part of her final duties, she was ordering food - including a whole bin of watermelon - for the estimated 300 girls coming to town for the Colfax High basketball camp.
Donna Morgan
A 1955 graduate of Colfax High School, Donna Morgan retired after 13 years as a bus driver for the district and several more as a substitute for teacher’s aides.
“I turned 76, don’t you think it’s time?” she said.
Morgan turned in the bus keys after countless runs on the McNeilly Road and Green Hollow Road/Morley Road and Manning Road routes.
She has also been the golf team’s bus driver for the past several years.
Morgan said she has especially enjoyed the extracurricular trips. Her final one was June 5, taking a sixth-grade Jennings Elementary science class on a trip to Spokane.
“I’m going to miss everything,” she said.
Morgan and husband John have three children; Doug, Angie and Valerie, who all graduated from Colfax High. In addition, the last of her four grandchildren who live in town just graduated this year.
Phil Hergert
The son of an Endicott Postmaster, Phil Hergert retired Thursday after a 36-year career as a teacher and coach, the last 12 of it in Colfax.
Graduating from Endicott High School in 1971, Hergert went to Central Washington University for a degree in Physical Education and Social Studies.
Beginning his career in Pierce, Idaho, he taught there for two years before teaching and coaching basketball in Lyle, Wash., St. John, Yelm and Rainier, Wash.
He came to Colfax in 2001 and coached the high school varsity boys basketball team for five years while teaching history and P.E. at Jennings Elementary.
He has taught seven more years since and decided now was the time to hang it up.
“I just felt it was time to retire, time for someone a little younger to step in,” he said. “While I step out and enjoy some other things.”
He said his plans for the future are somewhat flexible.
“My wife and I will travel some, and I’ll play a lot of golf. Other than that I’m not sure about. Whitman County kids were pretty much my whole life. I plan on staying here.”
Hergert has already cleaned out his classroom, working on it for the past month.
In September, he’ll know he’s retired.
“What I’ll miss the most is the start of school in the fall,” Hergert said. “It’s exciting, the kids are excited and the first month, getting to know each other again.”
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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