Karl Andresen was 65 years old today, and his wife Jodi threw him a surprise party at a hall in downtown Waterville. I was responsible for getting the word out to all the faculty about the party; also, I was responsible for coordinating a laptop and a projector for a powerpoint presentation to be played in honor of Karl. It didnt work out, but hey . . .I tried.
Amanda and I sat with Terry Atwood and Trenton Oliphant, the assistant principal and fellow Spanish teacher, respectively. For the first hour and a half, Karl's wife Jodi went around the room to pretty much each guest at the party (I would guess there were about 50 people or so) and introduced them and had them say a few words about their relationship to Karl--a pretty typical milestone birthday activity, I guess. What made this one so special, in fact, was seeing the way that this man literally did touch so many different people from so many contexts and paths of life--from his time in the Peace Corp to his time teaching at Bangor Christian Academy; from his tenure as a foster parent to his role as a surrogate father and "handyman" for a widowed family in his church; from his dedicated career as a teacher where he inspired so many students to follow their dreams, to his function as a "good country neighbor" who helped others split wood, drywall, and build snow fences. Many tears were shed, and, to be honest, the scene reminded me of the end of the movie "Big Fish" (my second all time favorite movie after Truman Show) where the father dies and all the eccentric people from his past come to pay tribute to a terrific human being. I joke around, imitate his voice, and make fun of him incessantly (to his face, of course), but I would be remiss to classify him as one of the most endearing, generous, and kind people I have known. He has been teaching for 43 years, and according to him, he looks forward to each and every day and has NO plans to retire. This means my DAD was 16 when Karl STARTED teaching--this was about 10 years before my dad had me . . . and now I am a 29 year old teacher.
Kind of puts the whole idea of "work" in perspective, huh?
2 comments:
Hello,
Out of the blue I did a google search for my 7th-8th grade Spanish teacher and what a lucky day! I remembered seeing an old segment on a news show (perhaps 60 Minutes) and could have sworn it was Karl in the background.
Anyway...busy as I was at the time, I didn't follow up until much, much later and well before the internet and never found any info.
As I mentioned, Karl was my Spanish teacher in middle school in East Hartford, CT. He gave me the nickname of 'Pure of Heart'. My girlfriend Jackie and I used to go Christmas caroling (in Spanish of course) with Karl and his wife. They were the best.
I would love to get in touch with Karl and send a hello. Do you have any contact info for him? Email would be great.
My name way back then was Sue Barbanell. If you are uncomfortable about sending me his contact info, perhaps you'd be more at ease with giving him mine: sue.abbott@co.benton.or.us/.
It was so fun to see your blog and a photo of Karl on his birthday. Seems I've caught up chronologically a bit. I'm celebrating my 53 birthday this year!
Regards,
Sue (Barbanell) Abbott
Wow, Mr. Andresen was my Spanish teacher at Pitkin School too! (Hi Sue, Hola Senor Andresen. Como estas?)
I will never forget his enthusiasm, the way he would bounce around the classroom, clap, and reach across to you with pointed finger for you to answer en espanol. He made class so much fun. I remember we had 3 Donna's in class, and by the time he came around to give me the Spanish translation of my name, all that was left was "Dorotea".
It was great to come across this blog and see that he continued to teach all these years.
Muy bien!
~Donna DiG.
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