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.
