By Jennifer Moody
Albany Democrat-Herald | Posted: Friday, March 14, 2008 12:00 am
LEBANON - Ken Ray still remembers the very door he entered, 30 years ago, when he first became a teacher at Lebanon High School.
It's right behind his desk.
"I've gone full circle," the Physical Systems principal said with a grin, glancing around his office, which used to be the high school's wood shop classroom.
Next week is the last as an educator for Ray, 55, who has spent almost all of his 30-year career at Lebanon High School. He taught vocational education classes for 19 years, was athletic director for two years, then returned five years ago as principal after a brief stint as the district's director of facilities.
His official retirement date was Jan. 1, but he agreed to work through the second trimester. His successor has not been announced.
Ray said he had always planned to retire after 30 years and felt now was the time. He'd like to spend more time with his family, particularly his parents and his wife, Marsha.
"I really have been very fortunate, especially in this district," he said. "I hope I've been able to serve the community, serve the kids that have come through in the last 30 years and help them to be successful. That was my goal."
Ray graduated from Toledo High School in 1971 and took classes for a year at Linn-Benton Community College, where he also played basketball.
The Vietnam War was raging and Ray had a draft number of 19. A basketball coach encouraged him to enter the Oregon National Guard, where he could serve his time and return to play again.
Ray took his advice but never got back to the Linn-Benton team. Following his time with the Guard, he had no money to return to college. So he took a job at a mill in Toledo, shoveling pulp, working on paper machines and other general yard labor.
His wife, Marsha, was teaching in Siletz at the time, and he remembers coming home one day and telling her he didn't think he could return to the mill. She suggested he try education. "What did you really like in school?" he remembers her asking.
"I said, 'Well, I liked shop class,'" he recalled. "She said, 'Then why don't you be a shop teacher?' I thought, 'I could probably do that.'"
So Ray enrolled at Oregon State University, playing drums in bands on weekends to help cover his tuition. He went straight through, graduating in 31/2 years.
During that time, the couple began looking to reduce Ray's commute. Marsha found a job teaching P.E. and coaching gymnastics at Lebanon Middle School and the Rays made the move.
Ray did his student teaching at Lebanon High School. In January 1978, a few months after his graduation, Ray filled in for a shop teacher at LMS who was promoted mid-year. He started at the high school that fall.
The first day was a little uncertain, he remembered. He picked up his schedule, found that he had a period of auto shop, and asked the vocational director to point out his classroom.
"He said, 'Well, you're going to have to go find one,'" Ray recalled with a wry laugh. The auto shop teacher at the time held court in the actual shop classroom, so Ray scrounged up a couple of small engines and taught in the wood shop that would become his office so many years later.
Those were good years, he said, but when the opportunity to change jobs came around nearly two decades later, he knew it was time for a change.
He especially enjoyed his three years at the district office, a job he took at the request of Superintendent Jim Robinson. District residents passed a $50 million bond measure during that time, and Ray loved working with the architects and contractors who shaped two new schools and renovation projects district-wide.
With the bond activity winding down, Ray accepted Robinson's invitation to be principal over the high school's Physical Systems academy. Since then he's been helping to shape a new type of vocational program, one that teaches higher-end math and communication along with welding, machining and other shop skills.
"It's my job to prepare kids to further their education, no matter what it is," he said.
He won't miss the demands of the job. Being a principal is stressful by nature, he said. But he will miss the students, his colleagues, and being a daily part of Lebanon High School.
"It's been a good career," he said.