LAFAYETTE, IN — If you were to ask for a consensus among Lafayette Jefferson High School students, it wouldn’t help you narrow down how old Chuck Herber is.
But his age isn’t what comes to mind when Herber’s students are asked to describe what he’s like. A jokester, musically talented and easy to connect with are all words his students use to paint a picture of their English teacher, despite the fact that he’s 81 years old.
Retirement is something Herber said he’s toyed with for years, frequently known, when asked, to say “just one more year.” Now, after 60 years of teaching, Herber will officially retire at the end of the current school year and will spend more time with his wife, Rene.
A Fort Wayne native, Herber began teaching after earning his bachelor’s degree in English from Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer in 1966. He spent 12 years teaching in Rensselaer before accepting a position at Klondike Elementary in West Lafayette, quickly moving over to McCutcheon High School the next year.
After eight years at McCutcheon, Herber said he was hired at Jeff High School. But the job didn’t come easily.
Jeff High was “the place to be” in the 1970s and ’80s, Herber said, and there was a lot of competition for open positions. Herber had his sights set on an English teaching position that would oversee the school’s newspaper, The Jefferson Booster.
After some turnover in the job, Herber said the principal at the time told him they were looking for a specific quality in their next candidate: longevity.
“The principal looked at me and said, ‘How long do you plan to stay here?'” Herber recalled. “I told him, ‘Well, this is the place to be, but there’s one exception. If CNN calls, I’m leaving.’ I remember he leaned across the desk and said, ‘If that happens, take me with you.'”
That exchange was 40 years ago, proving Herber had the “longevity” the school was looking for.
“But I’ll tell you what, those 40 years went just like that,” Herber said, snapping his fingers.
In 60 years of teaching, Herber has watched a lot of students come and go from his classrooms, but he remembers all of them. That came as a surprise to Steve Beeler, a special education teacher at Jeff High School.
Beeler was one of Herber’s first students at McCutcheon High School, Herber said, recalling exactly where Beeler sat in his classroom in 1982.
Beeler, too, will retire at the end of the current school year, which he said is a bit of an odd feeling.
“I’m 61, and I’ve thought about the fact that we’re both retiring before, but to sit here and really think about it now is crazy,” Beeler said with a laugh. “He’s the same person that he was then. I’ll pop into his class now and then, and he’s the same teacher I’ve always known.”
Elle McGurr, a senior at Jeff and student in Herber’s College Prep Composition class, said the connection Herber builds with all of his students makes him stand out.
“He’s got stories that you’ll never hear anywhere else about former students, and he can then tell you what they ended up doing after high school,” McGurr said. “It’s nice to have a teacher who can remember that for so long when they’ve had so many students.”
The personal connection Herber builds with his students is felt in his teaching, too. No matter how long a writing assignment is, McGurr said Herber is known to provide personal feedback, leaving notes in the margins of every paper.
Although Herber’s curriculum is serious, his students consider him a light-hearted jokester who’s known to take on a student in the occasional fingertip push-up challenge.
Herber said he has performed fingertip push-ups every day since he was 14, challenged to do so at the time by his older brother.
He’s gone viral in the past for taking on students in the fingertips push-up challenge, but there’s a secret to that, Herber said. Most students he’s found tend to top out at 15 push-ups.
“So, I do 17 to 20 every morning. That’s it,” Herber said. “It’s just for toning, really. I fall out of bed, do my push-ups and get the day going.”
At 81, Herber said movement is key to physical, mental and emotional health. In retirement, Herber has no plans to actually slow down, as much as his wife would like to see him try.
“I was raised on a farm,” Herber said, recounting the summer farm chores he grew up performing before the sun rose. “I liked doing that stuff, and that’s a big thing in life. Do you like what you’re doing?”
Herber doesn’t just like being a teacher, he said: He loves it. His love for his job has rubbed off on his former students, some who have gone on to be local teachers, too.
Knowing his students are passionate about what they do is one of the most fulfilling things he can think of from his 60-year career.
“All I have ever done is just do what I like to do,” Herber said. “You can’t beat that in life.”
Jillian Ellison is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. She can be reached via email at jellison@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: After 60 years teaching in Greater Lafayette, LSC’s Herber retires
Reporting by Jillian Ellison, Lafayette Journal & Courier / Lafayette Journal & Courier
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