8/10/2009

Former students form a fan club to honor their school principal

By GORDON D. FIEDLER JR.

Salina Journal

Time and age have slowed the step of longtime educator LeVoy Nelson, but the 95-year-old former principal still has a mind that would be the envy of any student on test day.

He can recall without hesitation the names of his schools and the years he served. He can recite events in his past as if they occurred a day ago. And he remembers with fondness the students -- the famous and the ordinary, the achievers and the slackers.

For Nelson, they all had value.

"Children like to think they're worth something," said Nelson, who turns 96 in a few weeks.

It was an attitude not missed by his students, particularly the nearly 100 who have joined the LeVoy Nelson Fan Club.

The club was launched by former Stewart student Roger Steinbrock, who happened upon the Grace Stewart Alumni Page on Facebook and posted a comment about Nelson being the "King of Stewart School."

Others thought so, also, and before long, Nelson had a growing cyber-admiration society.

"I remember he always has a big smile on his face," said Steinbrock, now living in Lawrence.

"He was very loving, very kind, very gentle. He taught in a different way. People respected it," he said.

Nelson never married. ("I never had the time to get married," Nelson said.)

"The kids at school were his kids," Steinbrock said. "His love of kids and impact on people is profound."

Some of his fan club members agreed. In e-mailed comments, they were unanimous in their praise for their former principal.

One is Jody Windle, who moved to Stewart midway through her third-grade year.

"It was really tough moving and having to start over with a whole new school and neighborhood. I can remember Mr. Nelson welcomed my siblings and (me) with open arms. He truly loved his job and you could tell that any time you (saw) or talked to him."

From Chris Baxter: "I can't begin to tell you the impact he had on me. I was the second of four kids in our family that went to school at Grace Stewart. When I was in the fourth grade, we moved to Kansas from North Carolina. It was a huge transition at a time when my parents were splitting up. LeVoy's compassion, enthusiasm and energy inspired me. I think he is one of the finest people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing."

From Kayla Wiens Hinton: "I have fond memories of watching Mr. Nelson sketch in the display case as you entered Grace E. Stewart School. He would use chalk pastels to create landscapes. I think those moments made an impression on me as I am an artist and art teacher today. Mr. Nelson was a warm and smiling man and respected by all whose lives he touched."

From Grant Wilcox: "Mr. Nelson left such an impression on me, which still holds true today.... And believe me, I was in trouble all the time.... I spent most of my fourth grade year outside his office; however, the things he taught me helped me become a successful person in business and life, and I thank him 35 years later."

Nelson was born and reared in the Assaria area, and were it not for close relatives, he may not have found his way to a classroom.

"My dad didn't believe in education beyond the eighth grade," Nelson said.

But Nelson's uncle picked up the tab for the tuition to Assaria High School.

His aunts, who were school teachers, were his inspiration.

"I always wanted to teach," he said.

His avuncular benefactor closed his wallet after high school, but because Nelson was salutatorian of his graduating class, he was offered a scholarship to Bethany College.

"The Lord was with me there," he said.

His first classroom was the rural Fore School, in District 13 in Saline County. He earned $60 a month.

"I thought I was in heaven," he said.

His pay was raised to $70 the following year, and then to $75.

WWII intervened, and Nelson spent time as an Army clerk in Europe before being stationed as part of the occupation force in Japan.

After the war, he resumed his teaching career, in Brookville, where he was also principal. At Brookville, he started the first lunch program in the county.

He transferred to Smolan, were he was principal and taught from 1953 to 1955.

One of his eighth-grade students was former Kansas Governor John Carlin.

Nelson said that Carlin told him he was twice the teacher of his predecessor.

Nelson heard that the fellow he replaced would let the boys go the bathroom any time they wanted, which soon emptied the classroom of all the male students. When the teacher went to roust them out of the lavatory, the girls would pound on the floor as a signal, whereupon the boys would scurry up the fire escape and be back in their seats by the time the clueless teacher returned.

"He never figured out how they got back in the room," Nelson said.

From Smolan, Nelson went to Lyons but stayed only a year.

He was tapped to teach elementary art, but the administration opened up the class to junior and senior high students even though the school was woefully short of art supplies. Nelson found out only two weeks before school started of his expanded class.

"Have you seen the art room?" Nelson fussed at the administrators. "All that's in there is a roll of masking tape."

During his tenure at rural Saline County schools, he worked during the summers on his master's degree in administration and a minor in art. He also was noticed by Grace E. Stewart, who was the director of education in Salina.

"She helped the elementary education teachers in the county," Nelson said.

Stewart advised Nelson to apply for a job in Salina.

Nelson saw the chalk on the board for the future of rural education.

"Someday they're going to close those little schools," Nelson remembered thinking.

He applied for a teaching position in Salina and was offered a combination fourth-fifth class at Hageman Elementary School, with the promise that he would get the next principal's job.

That opportunity knocked in 1960, when a new elementary school was built on the southern fringes of Salina. It would be named for the woman who encouraged Nelson to come to Salina.

Nelson was principal at Stewart until his retirement in 1980.

He had offers to move to other schools but always turned them down, he said. He'd go back to the classroom before leaving his beloved Stewart.

Nelson has stayed busy in retirement. He traveled the county and the world and was a volunteer at the Salina Emergency Aid/Food Bank for more than two decades, but has given that up.

"I get too tired anymore," he said.

At Christmas, he'd visit local and area nursing homes and sketch murals of bygone holiday scenes.

After Christmas, the residents still would gather at the mural and reminisce.

"They wouldn't let them take it down," Nelson said.

Students who remember Nelson, and there are many, universally mention his artistic talent.

John Ludes was one. "He was a really good artist," Ludes said. "He would do chalk drawings in the entryway to school. He taught us how to draw trees."

Nelson hasn't forgotten. With a borrowed ballpoint pen and a blank sheet of white paper, Nelson got to work and in a few deft strokes performed to patient narration, he rendered a grand deciduous specimen in full leaf. He flipped the paper over and sketched a majestic pine.

But it was his attention to detail of his students that seems to be Nelson's real art form.

"Very seldom do you have a principal that is so involved with each student," Ludes said. "He was genuinely concerned about how they were as a person. I run across him over the years and I tell him my name but he always remembers. This is 30 years ago (when I was) in fourth grade."

Nelson was surprised he had a fan club and that so many students have such fond words for him.

He tried to deflect the praise to others.

"I was fortunate to have good schools. I had good staff," he said.

And, he said he was blessed with good students with good parents.

"If you have good families, you have good students," he said.

nGordon D. Fiedler Jr. can be reached at 822-1407 or by e-mail at gfiedler@salina.com.