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Most memorable Bluffton High School teacher

Posted by Staff on June 16, 2023 - 10:39am

CORRECTION: Brown taught 33 years at Bluffton High School.

By Bill Herr

What Bluffton High School teacher was most memorable and influenced students the most? As a graduate of BHS and later a teacher at my alma mater, my list would be great but I would narrow it down to include Lorain Basinger (Vocational Agriculture), Wilbur Howe (History and Government), Wilford Geiger (Biology), Margaret Weaver (Latin), Duane Bollenbacher (Mathematics), and my choice at the top of the list, Gary Brown.

Gary graduated from Ada High School in 1956, from Bluffton College in 1961 and received his Master's in Teaching from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1972. He taught high school science for 35 years: Physics, Chemistry, Advanced Biology, and Environmental Biology (for which he developed his own course of study). He taught 33 of those years at Bluffton High School where he was affectionately known as "Doc." He was an assistant coach in football at BHS for 10 years.

Gary died on April 25, 2023, at age 84. There were approximately 150 who attended his funeral and a number of them were his former students. He retired from teaching in 1996. He was genuine, had high character and a strong personality. One of his former students told me he would always remember Gary's unique laugh. He had fun teaching and his classes received the benefit of his humor and his creative teaching.

He was an excellent teacher according to his students, but what elevated him to a memorable status was his demand that his students respect each other and respect the educational environment. He was a master of creative discipline, and if the principal was absent from school and a problem in discipline arose in the school that day, he was called upon to handle the problem.

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Fastest Lady Pirate?

Posted by Staff on May 9, 2023 - 11:03am

UPDATED May 9 with photo of Bonnie preparing for a race

By Bill Herr
Bluffton Icon columnist

Who was the fastest Lady Pirate in Bluffton High School track history?

Arguably, it was Bonnie Stratton. She is the oldest of Jay and Barb Stratton's three children. Their two boys, R.J. and Robbie, were outstanding football players for the Pirates. When they played, their grandpa, Rod Stratton, engineered a cannon that fired every time the Pirates scored a touchdown on Harmon Field. It was loud. I was told it scared the referees.

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Book Review: Our Missing Hearts

Posted by Staff on May 2, 2023 - 6:35am

Review by Robert McCool

Words can be weapons; whether written or spoken, or the more dangerous implied threat by authority.

Poetry has to be words too; a light illuminating the darkness in some human souls.

Such is the premise in the new masterwork by Celeste Ng, titled Our Missing Hearts ($34.00, Random House ISBN978-0-593-63267-3).

The story begins after the collapse of the United States economic system (which is blamed on the Chinese, of course). This is the time of PACT (Preserving American Culture and Traditions), a totalitarian authority that controls the whole country. PACT has the power to suppress any activity that is considered UN-American or seditious. PACT has the power to read all mail, wiretap any phone, or impose an ongoing curfew, which the breaking of brings down the law. Big time.

They also have the right to remove any child from its family if the parents do not follow PACT constraints faithfully to protect American values. These PACT laws were passed unilaterally by the House and Senate in an effort to bring America out of the Crises.

CONTINUES

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A lost but hallowed Pirate trophy

Posted by Staff on March 17, 2023 - 5:30am

By Bill Herr
Bluffton Icon columnist

What is the most treasured trophy ever won by a Bluffton Pirate team in sports or academics? I recently looked in the sports trophy case by the gymnasium and the academics trophy case by the old gym. Here are some candidates in sports: 1929 State Runner-up Boys Basketball, 1981 State Champions Boys Wrestling, 1991 State Runner-up Boys Football 1997 StateRunner-up Girls Track & Field, 2000 StateRunner-up Girls Basketball, 2008 State Champion Boys Track & Field, 2019 State Runner- up Boys Soccer.

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A book reviewed during a storm

Posted by Staff on January 30, 2023 - 7:03am

By Robert McCool

After a spell of ill health, I find myself back at the books and the keyboard during a winter storm, ready to talk about a book I wanted to hate, but couldn't.

Barbara Kingsolver is a great writer who presents her stories as plain-faced as a tale can be. This leads to some unpleasant topics sometimes when a story absolutely must be told. Such is “Demon Copperhead” ($34.50 ISBN:987-0-06-326746-6), an Oprah's Book Club 2022 selection.

The book is all about a boy (Daemon) with red hair (Copperhead) growing up up in the Apalachicola South, with all its poverty–which means plenty of teen mothers and drugs, among other things like high school football, drinking excessively and having not much future to look forward to. On the other hand, family is tight and most important in life.

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First BHS sports state champions?

Posted by Staff on January 5, 2023 - 6:26am

By Bill Herr

What was the first Bluffton High School Pirate sports team to win a state championship?

The 1981 varsity wrestling team. In wrestling at Bluffton High School, there have been 48 Pirate wrestlers that qualified for the State Championships in the 46 years between 1975 and 2021. 24 of them qualified multiple times and 7 became State Champions. The high caliber of this sport at BHS reached a peak in 1981 when the varsity wrestling team won the State Championship. This is their story.

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