Welcome back to Thebeerchaser. If you are seeing this post through an e-mail, please visit the blog by clicking on the title at the top to see all of the photos and so the narrative is not clipped or shortened. (External photo attribution at the end of the post. #1)

As I contemplated the title of these February posts, it harkened me back to my math courses in school – from junior high through college at Oregon State University where I had math courses. I struggled with two terms of calculus in college – required as part of my NROTC curriculum – but the foundation actually laid in junior high saved me and also helped me immensely in a career which involved a lot of budgeting and finance.

At Oregon City High School, my instructors were not notable except Catherine Westwood – my Latin teacher for two years and the mom of my good friend and fellow OCHS grad, Jim Westwood – also Beerchaser-of-the-Quarter in 2013.

She taught us a lot besides Latin and I remember being in her class my sophomore year when the announcement on President Kennedy’s assassination came over the PA system and stunned us into silence.

And I never forgot “pulchra puella” although I didn’t ever use the term as a pick-up line.

Thora B. Gardiner Junior High School

But it was from 7th through 9th grade where I had the most outstanding teachers. Their skill and dedication as educators (those shown below) prepared me for the future not only in math, but science and language arts (called English class in the ’60’s). And I also had one notable Band instructor who laid the foundation for one of my retirement hobbies over fifty years later.

I want to recognize them and although all but one is now deceased, their lessons remain with me. Cheers to Earl Gipe, Don Gribble, Eli Jimenez, Noel Jordan and Erv Lesser shown from left to right below from the ninth grade yearbook:

Earl Gipe

Mr. Gipe was a tall, imposing figure who had a strong command in the classroom of eighth- grade math students, which reflected his military service and was evident from the first day. One of his favorite expressions when an arithmetic problem on the board was erroneous was “Something’s fishy in Denmark!”

We had heard an unconfirmed rumor that he was once a Navy Frogman, but that just enhanced our respect and trepidation if we didn’t complete homework or stepped out of line in class.

I hadn’t even thought of Mr. Gipe until 2022, when six-time Oregon Sportswriter of the Year and author of twelve books, Kerry Eggers, wrote a blog post in 2022 paying tribute to Frank Cutsforth – a businessman (Cutsforth Market) in Canby, Oregon.

Canby is a small city of around 20,000 in the Willamette Valley named after a Union General killed in the Civil War. Midway through his narrative, he quoted Frank talking about childhood sports. Evidently, Earl Gipe had the same impact as he did on me:

“I had a Little League coach when I was 12, Earl Gipe, who was a taskmaster. He had been a frogman in the Navy. He was a tough guy, but he made good players out of us. He made us do stuff the right way. We learned discipline. That carried over for me. You have to have discipline in your life to get where you want to go.”

Fast forward four years when I did a little more research on Earl Gipe for this blog post. I was astounded by what I found – and from the Library of Congress Archives no less. Take a look at this excerpt from The frogmen of World War II : an oral history of the U.S. Navy’s underwater demolition teams by Chet Cunningham.

And the picture below is from the Seal Museum Association. LTJG Earl Gipe (left) performing beach master duties on Morotai. The officer to the right is Lt. Bob Eiring, the Commander of a UDT (Underwater Demolition Team) (#2)

“Before the Navy SEALs, there were the Underwater Demolition Teams. Before them came the Scouts & Raiders, and before them were the Navy Combat Demolition Units. But there was another group even before the NCDUs. It was called the Naval Special Services Unit No. 1, also known as the Amphibious Scouts.

A lot of military historians know little about Special Services Unit No. 1 because it was a top-secret group in the U.S. Navy created for a special purpose.”

“There would be three hundred U.S. 6th Army Rangers involved. One hundred would land on Dinagat with Lt. Root, Dougherty, and me. One hundred would land with Lt. Gipe. The other one hundred Rangers would be in reserve. Three APDs would be used to transport the Rangers and us

Around 2100 on the night of October 19-20, 1944, we turned on Dinagat’s Desolation Point light. Sometime around midnight we could hear some of the ships in the invasion fleet as they passed by. The invasion was a complete success, partly due to the navigation lights that we installed.”

In 1998, Earl Gipe passed away at 86 in Kansas. I wish I could have thanked him for his service and for his impact on me as a student.

Don Gribble

I got an excellent math foundation with Earl Gipe. It was with some trepidation, I then started a year of Algebra with Mr. Gribble – also the assistant football coach of the junior high team. That concern dissipated because he was patient, methodical and a great communicator.

Don Gribble, an Army veteran, passed away in 2018 at 97. He taught many years at a junior high in the Oregon City School District where he graduated from OCHS.

Eli Jimenez

My morning ninth-grade Algebra class was followed by Physical Science – taught by a young teacher new to the District. Eli Jimenez got authorization to teach our class an experimental curriculum for advanced students and was he tough. He used his prior military experience and time as an engineer at NASA to enhance his lessons. We bemoaned the homework and his difficult (and frequent) tests, but again, we learned a ton.

My parents also knew Eli and his wonderful family from church and my dad (FDW) absolutely loved this guy and what he was teaching us. Dad would sometimes encounter Eli on the way home from work to the frustration of Frannie – my mom – because they would have animated chats for an hour by the side of their two cars about the environment, public policy, education, etc. and he would miss dinner!

I still remember two projects in Eli’s class which imparted major lessons for my future education. The first was a science experiment in which he allowed me to do an ammonia fountain – something typically done in high school chemistry and ammonia – a colorless gas – wasn’t something for casual classroom exercises.

While gently encouraging me to be learn to take risks, he warned me that ammonia fountains often didn’t work, but if carefully conducted the result would be impressive. To this day, I can still visualize the astonishment of my class (and me) when as the ammonia vapor rose, it created a vacuum that pulled rose colored liquid ammonia from a large beaker, creating a spectacular fountain effect. (#3)

We griped when he assigned us a research project including a written paper with exhibits which typically wasn’t part of a ninth-grade science program – Eli smiled at our grousing. I was interested in the desalinization of seawater and water shortages in the West and with FDW’s help, wrote to some corporations who were pioneers with the concept.

The display (FDW constructed and helped me design it) that went with the paper is shown below and I relished Mr. Jimenez’s comments for months (and still have in my files) which included, “…The oral report was well-received by the class. The bright spots in a teacher’s life are, in part, due to students like you. God Bless You.”

I hadn’t had any contact with Eli for decades after he moved away, but he returned to the area and one Sunday morning in a church service about five + years ago, I looked across the aisle and said to Janet, “That’s my ninth-grade science teacher!” He saw me and we both ended up hugging with tears in our eyes and subsequently had lunch at an Oregon City bistro.

He moved back to New Mexico, but this guy – now in his nineties – is a Renaissance Man. He plays the bass in a combo, runs miles every day, volunteers and is a wonderful grandfather. Eli’s beautiful wife, Tijla, died when she was young and he didn’t remarry.

Eli Jimenez was a wonderful teacher and is a great human being! Just as my dad did, I love this guy! (#4 – #7)

Noel Jordan

In our first seventh-grade English class, we kids were taken aback when this young enthusiastic guy who was starting his first year as a teacher, told us what he planned. We were going to learn new vocabulary words, do innovative book reports and write creatively.

And we did in what was a wonderful classroom environment. I loved the new vocabulary words we had to memorize each week and it helped me immensely over the years – for the College Boards and even writing papers in grad school. They were not seventh-grade vocabulary, but words such as “alacrity,” “belies,” “anachronistic,” “garner,” “vernacular,” etc.

In fact, one word that I used in a 1975 grad school paper, which became a running joke for years with my brother-in-law, Dave Booher, a former English teacher, who edited my term papers was “garner.” (I learned it in Noel Jordan’s class.) He stated,” Don, that’s ridiculous. Garner is so anachronistic. Don’t ever use that word again.”

That started my collection of “Garner” files which I supplemented for years and still have. Included are clippings, obituaries, sports stories, etc. Whenever I saw the word, I would send (or personally deliver) Dave a photo of the clipping or reference which over the years included press releases for Jennifer Garner and James Garner.

Also the official logos of the Town of Garner, North Carolina and the City of Garner, Iowa (The Jewel in the Crown of Iowa). (#8) I even took a picture over some dead guy’s named Garner’s grave to prove my point that “Garner – the word -is not dead.” (see below)

Noel Jordan taught in Oregon City until he retired in1993 and then tutored and was an active volunteer in many non-profit organizations. I decided to try to find him to reunite in the 1990’s. I figured he would love the garner joke and wanted to express my appreciation for his impact on my education.

We had a few lunches and great discussions. He passed away at 77 in 2012 and I sent a letter to his sister expressing my condolences along with the Opinion Piece above I wrote for the West Linn Tidings. (#9)

Ervin Lesser

Mr. Lesser, the Band Instructor, had less influence ultimately than the aforementioned teachers, but this professional trumpeter did teach me how to play the oboe from the seventh to ninth grade.

I gave it up in high school for athletics, but achieved one of my retirement bucket-list items when I “relearned” it and took lessons for six years. Mr. Lesser was a stern perfectionist and I remember the intense anxiety I had for an opening solo for three nights of his Annual Stage Show in 1963, which was for both the junior high and high school and drew a lot of people.

I didn’t mess it up and garnered compliments for the opening bars of “Polovtsian Dances” (from the opera Prince Igor – better known as the song “Stranger in Paradise).

The culmination of my “oboe career” was performances for three years (2016-19) at Portland’s Pittock Mansion where volunteer musicians play in a side room during the Christmas season while people tour the beautiful, historic dwelling. Kelly Gronli, my oboe instructor – a professional musician, Sarah Rose (flute), Faith Carter (piano) and I played for one of the two-hour sessions during those three years.

Mr. Lesser planted the seed for this in 1960 when he said he needed an oboe player for our band and it was a better challenge then the clarinet….

Thanks for bearing with me as I reminisced and tried to honor these great educators. I would recommend that you also reach out and take one of your memorable teachers to lunch (or to raise a mug.) You will be enriched by the experience and they will appreciate it.

Cheers

External Photo Attribution

#1. Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arithmetic_symbols.svg) The copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide.  Author: This vector image was created with Inkscape by Elembis, and then manually replaced.  26 May 2007.

#2.  (2003.0018.4 – B&W photo of Amphibious Scouts team leader LTjg Earl Gipe (left) performing beach master duties on Morotai. The officer to the right is Lt. Bob Eiring, the Commander of an UDT. | UDT-SEAL Museum Association.

#3. Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ammonia_fountain#/media/File:Fountain_of_ammonia_2.svg/2) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. Author: apple502j_sub – 1October 2017.  By apple502j_sub, CC BY-SA 2.0, (https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63264629).

#4. Eli Jimenez Facebook site  (red) (https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=234235316750013&set=a.234235310083347).

#5. Eli Jimenez Facebook site (family) (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2938306672921514&set=t.100004906392356&type=3).

#6. Eli Jimenez Facebook site (vest) (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100375548070596&set=t.100004906392356&type=3).

#7.  Eli Jimenez Facebook site (coffee) (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100255028807166&set=t.100004906392356&type=3).

#8.  Wikipedia – Fair Use –  (GarnerNCseal – Garner, North Carolina – Wikipedia) By https://nextdoor.com/agency-detail/nc/garner/town-of-garner/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=80935385). This logo is an official seal of a governmental entity and qualifies as fair use under the Copyright law of the United States.

#9. FindaGrave.com (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/86845380/noel-andrew-jordan).