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MIDDLETON, N.S. —

The paint was hardly dry on the walls of the newly built Middleton Regional High School when Al Peppard, a fresh-faced graduate, walked through its doors for his first teaching job.

He was a member of the MRHS staff for its first 35 years, hired as a teacher and later serving as school principal. Known around town as Pep, he has continued to support the school in some capacity throughout its entire history.

This year’s reunion committee is marking the 70th anniversary of its first graduating class and recently appointed Peppard as an honourary chairperson, presenting him with a framed staff photo that shows him and the other members of the school’s first teaching staff.

“As a committee we wanted to honour Al, as he was a member of the first teaching staff of MRHS and has been a constant supporter of the staff and students,” said Wendy Rodda, chairperson of the reunion committee.

“We are giving this plaque to thank him for his dedication, so he knows ahead of time how much we appreciate his lifelong love and support of our hometown school,” she added. “He is the last member of the original teaching staff and is the driving force behind every reunion.”

Peppard, originally from Truro, said he didn’t plan to be a teacher when he was growing up. He thought he would follow in his father’s footsteps and get a job working on the railroad.

Many young people, including his older brother and sister, joined the war effort and he briefly considered that, but his older siblings encouraged him to stay home and finish his education.

“There weren’t many male teachers at that time because of the war,” he said. “In high school we had to organize sports for ourselves.”

After he graduated from Grade 12, Peppard went on to study at McGill. When he was hired as a gym teacher in 1949 at the new high school in Middleton, he arrived a few months early to teach children how to swim at the local swimming hole.

“It was quite a thing to hire an instructor to teach swimming,” he said. “So, I got to know a lot of the kids before school even started.”

In September, Peppard became the youngest member of the first teaching staff at the new school. The community had been buzzing about the construction of this new big school, it was an exciting time that promised a new approach to education.

This school was touted as a new approach to education, it would bring together students from 28 outlying smaller schools into town to receive a full high school curriculum for the very first time.

“It was a chance for everyone to get a high school education,” he said. “It put everyone on the same level, not all the smaller schools in the rural areas offered Grade 12.”

Once MRHS opened, the smaller schools continued on for many years as elementary schools, teaching primary to six. The town’s school, Macdonald Consolidated, was highly regarded among educators and this new high school attracted the best teachers, he added.

“When I came here, I was the rookie,” he said. “I was joining an excellent and experienced staff and I learned a lot myself that year. I probably learned more than the kids.”

Peppard says MRHS was always a terrific school and has always had the full support of the community. Over the years, his former students have come back to visit him and, somehow, he remembers at least a first name.

“I’m surprised every time they come and thank me,” he said. “I tried to get to know the kids a little, find out about their environment and what they were interested in - encourage them, find out what lights them up.”

For him, looking at the staff photo taken in 1985, the year he retired from teaching, is always a high point. Thirteen of the roughly 40 staff members were his former students.

“They carried on the tradition. They took the skills they learned and imparted them to others,” he said. “A little bit of positive goes a long way in the world.”

Heather Killen

Annapolis Valley Register

heather.killen@kingscountynews.ca

@KingsNSnews