After the final day of school this year, the Big Sandy Schools Facebook Page posted a short video of "Mr. T's last walk out the door after 49 years." Kids cheered on and accompanied the well-loved teacher as he headed down the front walk for the last time. Mr. T has worked part time for the last several years in the library and helping kids one-on-one with school work. Much of the reason for his long tenure has been his love for teaching kids and for our little town.
Dick Thornton started teaching at FE Miley Elementary School in the fall of 1972. He initially set out to take a job in Great Falls, his home town. "When I first was trying to get a job after I got out of the Navy, I started going up to see the superintendent who was in charge of hiring in Great Falls. I'd go up there every Tuesday. I did that for about six weeks. He gave me about 10 or 15 minutes, and we chatted. He always had told me that if you ever go someplace, stay at least two years." Dick continued to reach out hoping to get a job in Great Falls. While waiting for a position to open, Mr. Melhoff, who was the math teacher at the high school and a friend of his, suggested he look at a job in Big Sandy. Dick was offered a contract here, but held onto it still hoping to get a position in Great Falls. Then, days after finally signing on to teach here, he got a call about an opening in Great Falls. He opted to follow through on his contract in our town for 2 years, as his superintendent friend had advised. That was the start of a career spent educating the kids of Big Sandy.
Mr. Thornton started out teaching 4th, 5th, and 6th grade English and PE. He explained that he didn't spend much time socializing or integrating into the community during his first teaching year, because he and Mr. Melhoff (the HS math teacher) were both from Great Falls and traveled back there every weekend. After his first year, Mr. T began to grow more comfortable with small town life and came to love our community. He explained that the same thing happened with his wife, Jodi Thornton, who came to Montana from California. Dick assumed that one Montana winter would be enough to convince his wife to move their family back to California. That was the winter of 1982-1983, which was an extraordinarily mild one. Before the weather managed to turn cold enough to scare her back west, Jodi had also fallen in love with our little town. The pair agreed that Big Sandy, "just felt like home." They proved that this was indeed home by raising their children here and becoming integral parts of their church and other parts of our community.
49 years later, Mr. Thornton still enjoys the work and Big Sandy. "I enjoy it. It's not like work. It hasn't been like work for me." The best part of the work he does now, and throughout his career, is working with the kids. Over the past few years, Mr. T has scaled back his hours as his energy has begun to wane. After cutting down to half time this year and focusing on adding the entire elementary school library to the digital catalog, he has decided it's time to retire. Jodi will be retiring this year as well, and the pair is looking forward to doing "whatever they want" with their retirement years. He expects that he will miss working with the
kids. They don't have any plans of leaving the community they call home.
Though Mr. T started out teaching 4th, 5th, and 6th grade, he did not stay in that position. He also taught 2nd grade for nine years and ran the study hall (after cutbacks resulted in his position changing). Finally, he worked in the library and helped kids one-on-one with schoolwork. Dick said that his favorite role in the school was the one-on-one work with kids, which was always where he earned the highest marks in his teacher evaluations. This fits with his feeling that teaching wasn't really as much a job as a calling. "You're not going to do it for 49 years if you don't like working with kids."
Over the years, Dick has grown to a place of prominence in our community, his church, and the school. He admitted that sometimes former students approach him to talk about things he used to do as a teacher and to express their appreciation. He describes that as "always awesome" and "an interesting experience."
Mr. Thornton also explained that owning his home in Big Sandy was important to him. He explained that this was a product of growing up in temporary housing after WW2. After his family moved on, the units were torn down and replaced with permanent housing. Throughout his childhood, he dreamed of having his own house. He finally achieved in Big Sandy. "I got my own place and do Christmas. It's my Christmas lights. I'm just proud of those." Anyone who has seen the Thornton's Christmas display can see the pride he has in them. His pride in his home can easily be seen in the manicured yard and beautiful house he and his wife have kept up.
The kids cheering and thanking Mr. T as he left FE Miley for the last time in his career were expressing the same attitude of thanks and admiration that many in the community are feeling. One of the reasons our schools are high quality is the consistency of teachers who are committed to educating our kids. Thank you, Mr. T.
