Norwell Business Department History
The business department began with five men and continued for most of the next 35 years. They accumulated a total of 186 teaching years. Of that, 158 years were spent teaching in the Norwell Business Department. This was unique in that most business departments were dominated by female educators. Ellen Snyder was added as a sixth teacher for a couple of years in the 1970’s. In the 1990’s, the men began to move to other positions in the corporation. Because of this, additional teachers needed to be hired. Ron Harnish, a Norwell graduate, Deb Darnell, and Eric Thornton were added to the department staff.
Several members of the department were school leaders outside the classroom—NCA evaluations, teacher’s organization, faculty activities, club sponsorships, coaching, social committee, salary negotiations, working athletic events (selling tickets, running clocks, keeping stats, football chain gang), and much more. Comradery was good within the department and with the other members of the faculty and staff. That all led to a great work environment. Four of the five gentlemen worked their entire careers within the Northern Wells Corporation, and a majority of those years were spent within the business department.
Ralph finished his career with three years in administration. Dave spent the final six years of his career as the Director of Transportation for the corporation. Mike finished his career with seven years as the Athletic Director. Steve was the only “trooper” who spent his entire career in the department. I (Howard) spent my last twelve years splitting time between technology and teaching.
Enrollment in the department was at capacity during our tenure. The business department had a reputation for expecting students to work for their grades. They did not get a passing grade for just showing up. To receive an A in the department, you had to average 95%. It also took 70% to get a passing grade. Multiple class valedictorians and salutatorians passed through our department.
The Norwell Business Department’s “Fab Five” were Ralph Thiele, Dave Furey, Howard Williams, Mike Gilbert, and Steve Lehman. The following includes the introductions/bios of the men of business.
Ralph Thiele—Mr. Typing/Keyboarding
1962 – 1964 Antwerp High School in Antwerp, OH Business Teacher
1964 – 1968 Ossian High School (North Campus) Business Teacher
1968 – 1995 Norwell High School Business Department
1995 – 1998 Norwell High School Vice Principal
First, hats-off to you, Howard, for volunteering to put this together, and to Gene for suggesting it. Also, thanks to Almighty God for bringing us together while still alive in a community in which our philosophies and our personalities had an opportunity to thrive, and for the structure in the system in which the faculty, administration, and school board all worked as a team.
In 1964, Harry Andes, Ossian H. S. Principal, and ‘Mac’ Benson, Supt., hired me to teach business at Ossian. Helen Donaghy (Gene’s mom) and Charles Fullhart were my associates and mentors, and I couldn’t have asked for better. The following year, they started grooming Mr. Fullhart for administration, and I was hired as his replacement.
Eventually, Rockcreek and Union would join our consolidation, but Audrey Gaiser chose not to transfer and retired instead. As the four townships began consolidation meetings/discussions, many senior teachers elected to retire, knowing the challenges that consolidation would bring.
Ralph’s Dialogue/Recollections
We had lots of meetings. The new Norwell H.S. committees elected to organize as departments; and with the increased enrollment numbers that were anticipated, it was determined that we would have to offer more subjects in addition to the current bookkeeping, typing, shorthand, and general business. These additions mandated additional business faculty, and Steve Lehman and Mike Gilbert joined our team. There were a few ‘in-and-out’ additional business teachers, but these five remained intact from the first day of
Norwell High School until Ralph’s retirement in 1998. All five of us concluded our professional years at Northern Wells—many while Gene Donaghy was on the school board.
During the early-organizational years, the business department was in the A-wing, directly across from the administrative offices. Faculty were encouraged to have input into the physical structure (layout) of their departments. Dave, Howard, and Ralph elected to have the department office in the center of a wagon-wheel layout, with (most-importantly) clear-glass panels in the top-half of the walls. This was emphasized to permit students in adjacent business classes to see the learning, activities, and interactions taking place next door—i.e. “That’s the machines-class, where I’ll be next year.” It allowed us to project the sequential learning program in business at Norwell. It also won rave reviews from touring visitors from other schools and communities.
When Northern Wells added the D-wing to the southwest corner of the high school, the business department was moved. In coordination with the school-board, administration, and related educators, technology brought an introduction to the computer age of business. Again, the office was centrally-located, but classrooms were located in concentric circles around the office. It also was beneficial that Howard and Dave developed skills in grant writing to secure government money for our technical growth in the new computing age.
One classic innovation of the business department was the introduction of cadets, or youth secretaries in training, to team up with the business teachers. If a senior (and occasionally, a junior) had good grades, was a ‘business major,’ and had a class schedule that was flexible, they could elect to give up a study hall to be a cadet for a business teacher. In my personal opinion, this program made my teaching-career more beneficial to the school system, the student, and, yes, to Ralph Thiele.
Let me explain:
In typing, before correcting tape, erasers, and spell-check on computers, students learned on manual and electric typewriters. On a good day, the average student would fill two sheets of paper with drills, initially, then with structured problems (memos, letters, tables of data, form letters, etc.). These were all handed in every day.
In typical (non-Norwell) schools, the teacher would spot check these papers on a rotating basis and return them, usually within a day or two, to random classes. Because I always chose my best proofreaders from previous years as my cadets, they had “eagle eyes” and could skim projects very rapidly, mark errors, or write “great” or “nice job” at the top of the paper. Projects were then returned to each student via their own tray in the classroom.
Here’s the payoff:
I averaged four to six typing classes each year, each with 25-30 students. 25 students x 2 sheets of paper daily = 250 sheets of papers to check and mark for each class every day. For 90% of my teaching career, every student got immediate feedback from the previous day’s assignment(s), EVERY DAY. That’s why Norwell’s business graduates were in high demand upon graduation. Not because of Ralph Thiele, or any other business teacher, but because of the contributions of our cadets in helping their fellow students learn! I hope that Howard, Steve, Mike, and Dave can/will add to this topic, on how they fine-tuned this concept, because I saw some dynamic applications of teacher-cadet-learning. We did it well!
Dave Furey—Mr. Accounting/ICE
1967 – 1968 Lancaster High School (South Campus) Business Teacher
1968 – 1996 Norwell High School Business Department
1996 – 2002 Director of Transportation for the Corporation
I had a job, as did Joan, in Crown Point. We were searching for something closer, as Joan was an Adams Central graduate. I got a one page, ditto sheet application from Northern Wells. They indicated they had no jobs available. I filled out the application in pencil and sent it in. During the summer of 1967, Lex called me, and I met him at the Ossian School. I had a 20-minute interview, and he said they had openings at Ossian and Lancaster. The Lancaster one was an accounting/bookkeeping position. He thought that would be a better fit, and I took the Job. Howard got the other job.
Dave’s Dialogue/Recollections
At Lancaster, I had a room with a plywood wall separating it from the chorus room. What a joke. I had 36 kids in my bookkeeping class, sitting in three rows, elbow to elbow. When I gave a test, I had a friend take all the girls upstairs and give the test while I gave the test to the 18 boys after I spread them out.
My room was across the hall from the cafeteria, and I didn't have a class during lunch. Kids would gather in my room after lunch instead of going to the gym or sitting on the floor. After
I found three fudgesicles melting in a desk drawer I asked Charlie Day if I could lock the room. He said no because he didn't want those kids in the gym after lunch, so I spent my prep period in my room.
I became a junior class sponsor and was put in charge of the candy sale. We stored the candy in several places, including a closet in the wood shop. One day, when Tom Habert was the shop teacher, I went in to get some candy for an order and they were having a contest to see who could pick the padlock and open the closet. One kid did it in under 1 minute. Habert was timing with a stopwatch.
On to Norwell. I had a lot to learn but soon realized that discipline was a key to success and job retention. Ralph had several years’ experience on us. He was a great help. The windows also helped all of us maintain discipline.
I know I subscribed to Playboy and Hustler magazines on occasion for Herb Tripp and Ted Waters. One time, Jim Dilbone overslept and said he woke up to a flat tire and was an hour or so late. I took the liberty to go out to his car and check the hubcaps. (You can't change a tire without getting the dirt to smudge on the hubcap.) As I expected, the hubcaps had a uniform amount of dirt on them - no smudges. I carefully removed a hubcap and hung it in the lounge with a note for people to explain how he accomplished the tire changing feat with no smudges. Hundreds of tricks and jokes between staff members made teaching at Norwell fun. I never received a Christmas bonus, but I still had fun.
This past spring, Eric Thornton took the girls basketball team to the state finals. I congratulated him on the fine season and was recommending him for a first-ever Easter bonus, as we were a week away from Easter.
That's all for now. Fond memories and the fact we taught together so long without any real problems speaks well for us all.
In 1988, the year we moved to the D-wing, I presented a proposal to the administration to create the Interdisciplinary Cooperative Education program at Norwell. In a nutshell, students were taught skills through their junior years and through this ICE program. They were released from school to work in a business environment and practice the skills they had learned. The students were interviewed by me as juniors, and a determination was made regarding the probable success they would have. Students earned three credits per semester and at least a minimum wage salary. Students also were in a class to learn business skills. They would discuss the real-world work issues they were experiencing. The program was so popular that students enrolled early, regardless of being put on a waiting list.
Howard Williams—Mr. Machines/Computers
1967 – 1968 Ossian High School (North Campus) Business Teacher
1968 – 1989 Norwell High School Business Department full time
1989 – 1994 Norwell High School Business Department half time, Computer
Coordinator half time
1994 – 2001 Corporation Computer Coordinator full time
2001 – 2002 Norwell Middle School teaching computer classes
I was hired by Superintendent Mac Benson and came to Northern Wells in the fall of 1967. I taught at the Ossian school (North Campus) through the spring of 1968. During my first semester of teaching, I became ill and spent three weeks in the hospital. First-year teaching was enough of a challenge without missing three weeks when you were establishing classroom expectations and management.
Also, during that first year at Ossian, I was teaching six classes in six different classrooms. The classrooms were all shared by other teachers as well, so they were seldom ever vacant. There was no teacher’s lounge where you could relax and catch your breath. My office was my briefcase, and my desk was whatever flat surface I could find.
My career took a new direction in 1982. Herb Tripp, a math teacher, introduced me to computers. He was teaching programming in the math department. He told me that we should be teaching word processing in our department. From that time on, technology was a significant part of my duties at Norwell.
In 1984, I authored a grant proposal to get money to outfit our department with needed technology for word processing and accounting. Dave Furey collaborated in being sure the correct verbiage was used. Another grant was written by the duo in 1988. This was used to outfit the computer classrooms in the new D-wing and create our first network. I spent countless hours working with IBM and teaching myself the skills needed to keep the network running. My life had definitely changed direction, and I became more invigorated.
During the next few years, I developed all the curriculum used to teach word processing, spreadsheets, database, and desktop publishing within the department. In addition, I created and taught all technology teacher in-service regarding software and equipment that teachers used.
From 1989 to 2002, most of my time and energy were spent developing computer curriculum for the department, learning to run the Novell network, keeping computers operating, and planning for future technology. Approximately half of my time was devoted to teaching and half to technology.
I officially became the Technology Coordinator for the corporation. I got this job because I could work on business machines and make them work again. Therefore, I could fix computers. It led to me outfitting all student buildings with computers and installing software and network capabilities. The administration building was added to the networking, especially for communication purposes.
During this period, the corporation went from two computers in the business department to eleven servers and approximately 700 student computers. In addition, all buildings in the corporation were connected, so troubleshooting could be done by technicians from any building.
My 2001-02 school year was spent teaching computers to middle school students. I retired from Northern Wells on June 1, 2002.
Howard’s Dialogue/Recollections
The Norwell High School building was opened in the fall of 1968 and the business department was formally created. Each teacher had their own desk, file cabinet, and chair. What a difference from my initial year of teaching. I was a member of the department through 2002.
In the fall of 1968, the doors opened on a new building and a new business department. Our curriculum was a combination of North Campus and South Campus classes. We geared our teaching to the technology of the time.
Business Machines was a popular class for business students. This class taught adding/calculating machines, duplicating machines, and transcribing machines. Students were taught the proper keying techniques for the adding machines. Mimeograph (long, blue stencils) and fluid duplicating (purple copies) procedures were taught. Transcribing required creating a document from voice instructions. No notes or rough drafts to type from.
The Office Practice class was a secretarial training course. Duties, responsibilities, and expectations of the secretary were taught. Special projects from the community and school, practice sets, workbooks, field trips, etc. were used to demonstrate and learn proper procedures. Filing was another important aspect of their training. Field trips allowed the secretarial candidates to see and evaluate various office environments, arrangements, and facilities firsthand.
Various school projects were organized and completed by the Machines and Office Practice classes working together. Probably the biggest project they completed together was the Senior Memory Book. It was created each spring by the senior class filling out questionnaires about their classmates. Office Practice would tabulate the data, and Machines would create mimeograph stencils and run them off. Office practice would collate and fasten the pages to make a book.
Through the 70’s and much of the 80’s, Lincoln Life Insurance Co. in Ft. Wayne employed many of our Office Practice graduates. In the mid 70’s, Lincoln Life came to Norwell and did the employment test and some interviews right in our business department. They were very pleased with the quality of skills the girls developed in our department. Unfortunately, our working relationship with Lincoln ended after a few years when they moved their operations out of town.
I spent most of my time teaching Secretarial Practice, Business Machines, and computer classes. Some years I also taught Business Law, General Business, and Business Math.
In 1982, the Department obtained its first computers, two Apple IIE’s. They were added to the Business Machines classes and word processing was introduced. Several word processing programs were used over the years, Easy Writer, Word Perfect, and Microsoft Word.
In 1984, 16 IBM-PC’s were added to the department. They were used for accounting classes and word processing. Since established curriculum was unavailable from textbook publishers, I developed the curriculum for the word processing class.
Approximately 1986, SuperCalc was the first spreadsheet program used for the spreadsheets class. Lotus replaced SuperCalc a few years later, and finally Microsoft Excel was installed.
Approximately 1988 I developed a database class. DBase II was the first database used, RBase III, then Microsoft Access was introduced. Again, I developed this curriculum.
In 1989 the Business Department moved into the new D-wing. We upgraded the Secretarial class to the Intensive Office Lab. Approximately 48 IBM computers were added and we had four classrooms equipped to teach our computer curriculum.
A class in Desktop Publishing, believed to be the first in Indiana, was designed by me and added to the computer curriculum. PageMaker was taught for developing documents, and Arts & Letters was a graphics program used to illustrate the publications. This class completed several projects for administration, activities, the public, and classes within Norwell.
Dave Furey and I wrote two Perkin’s Grants that obtained approximately $400,000 in vocational monies. These funds were used to outfit the computer rooms with computers, furniture, software, and our first network. All the department computers were connected. Students could use any computer lab and be able to access their files. The main office and guidance office were added to the network so they could share the word processing software and their proprietary software.
The business department computers and network were the foundation for eventually getting the entire corporation computerized and networked. About 1989, I became the
Computer Coordinator for the corporation. By my retirement in 2002, the corporation had 11 servers and approximately 700 computers for student and faculty use. All five corporation buildings were connected via networks by the mid 1990’s.
Other schools visited Norwell to see what we were doing. Indianapolis and Fort Wayne schools came to learn what and how we were teaching. We were ahead of the curve in developing a computer curriculum. I also made presentations at the Business Education Winter Workshop on multiple occasions. This gave Norwell statewide exposure. Other schools knew where they could visit to get ideas on how to proceed in developing their own computer curriculum.
Also, in the early 90’s, adult computer classes were offered to the community. Word processing was the initial offering and later spreadsheets and desktop publishing were added. The courses were very popular with adults wanting to learn for personal or job-related reasons. Some just wanted to learn to try and keep up with their children and what they were doing in school. I got the classes started, and then Mike and Steve joined in and taught as the demand grew.
The business department was creative and innovative. A student secretary program was instituted in the department. They assisted the business teachers in several tasks in the department office. They started by doing most of the duplicating duties. However, many other tasks were added to their role. In return, the student secretaries kept the business teachers well fed. When other departments learned how we were using student secretaries, they wanted secretaries also. The department coordinated this program for several years.
When the Department moved to the new D-wing in 1989, it had a layout that was optimized by having the business office in the middle of the layout. We had a lot of windows, so most classrooms could be observed from the office. Students knew that someone could always be watching, even if the classroom teacher was busy assisting a student.
The Department had a good reputation, and the students knew what to expect when they entered. We had fun with our students, but we had high standards; they knew they had to perform if they wanted to be successful. Over the years we taught many children of our previous students. Many early students directed their children to the business department. Our curriculum consisted of learning needed in everyday life.
Mike Gilbert—Mr. Economics/Golf Coach
1968 – 1998 Norwell High School Business Department
1998 – 2005 Norwell High School Athletic Director
I did my student teaching in the spring of 1968 at Woodlan High School and lived with my brother, who also was a business teacher. I remember my interview at Ball State with Lex and Superintendent Mac Benson--who happened to be a teacher at Hartford City High School when my brother was there. I was sure that a teaching position would be offered when they asked me to come to Ossian and talk to Jerry Allred about coaching. Mr. Benson also sent a letter to my draft board that got me out of a scheduled physical for the draft.
Mike’s Dialogue/Recollections
I agree with Ralph’s assessment of the value of the student secretaries and the service they provided to the business teachers and the students in our classes. I also had massive amounts of proofreading for my advanced typing classes, as well as proofreading and project evaluation in desktop publishing. Student secretaries were also granted hall passes to deliver inter-department messages (before text, email, and classroom phones).
In the early 1990’s the Business Professionals of America club was implemented. I started the Norwell chapter of BPA, and later Deb Darnell took over. During this time, several members of BPA earned state and national contest honors. Our students represented Norwell and the business department extremely well.
A significant achievement for the department was getting state money based on enrollment in our vocational programs. Dave, Howard, Mike, and Steve got vocational licenses that allowed us to get those funds for every student enrolled in vocational classes. There was a significant amount of money that came to the corporation through the vocational enrollment.
Each year when enrollment numbers were determined and classes were assigned, the business department met, and we chose members to teach each class offered in the department. Steve has this covered very efficiently in better detail.
Another teacher that came into the department for a short time was Sharilyn Boots.
I remember the help I got from Ralph in handling classroom discipline. His experience and insight helped me through what could have been a most difficult first year of teaching. The form letter to send home to the parents of disruptive students (in a plain handwritten envelope) got the results required to help me keep control of my classroom. Most parents supported us back then.
Steve Lehman—Mr. Shorthand/General Business
1968 – 2012 Norwell High School Business Department
44 years
I did my student teaching in the fall, so by December of ‘67 I sent out applications for a teaching position. During my interview I mentioned that I would use Mr. Ed Bryan, one of my high school teachers, as a reference. It so happens that Ed's father, Bill, was a coaching legend at Lancaster. That made a connection, because Lex Dormire was leading the interview, and he was a Lancaster man. So, I had one foot in the door just because of who I knew.
Mike and I were new to teaching that first year in the new building. We were not aware of the attitudes I think some of the teachers had about the combining of Ossian and Lancaster. That was probably good for both of us.
I remember the first few years as being a great learning experience. The student teaching experience helps a lot, but making all the decisions about your class day by day presents a challenge. So, you look for help, and help was there! Although still young teachers, Ralph, Dave, and Howard had experience. They were always willing and able to give direction, advice, and encouragement. I appreciated their insight and learned a lot just watching them do their jobs. Maybe the most important thing is that they were solid, good teachers who knew how to do their jobs!
We had a group that supported each other. Our rooms and office location made the teaching situation a little unusual because, to get to our business office, you had to walk through a classroom. So, we taught with our doors open, and it was a regular thing to have a teacher walk through the back of our room while we were having class; no problem.
Well, I do remember one time, Ralph came through my room wearing a football helmet and carrying a ball. The students were used to seeing us as a group that worked together, and that helped our department.
One thing I always appreciated was how we decided what classes we would teach. Ralph or Dave would go to the office and get the list of classes we were going to have the next year based on enrollment. We might have 4 sections of typing, 5 general business, 2 accounting, etc. The classes were then divided out based on what we wanted as much as possible. Although Mike and I were at the bottom of the pecking order, I felt we still had some input as to what we would like to teach. Although I usually got to teach all the general business I wanted, I also had a lot of the better classes as well.
Steve’s Dialogue/Recollections
Our department was appreciated by the office. We were often asked (told) to cover pep sessions, convocations, parking lots, etc. I think Mr. Dormire gave us a little slack because he knew we were on top of things. Of course, he also had a way of digging in sometimes, on which some of you could comment.
In the early 80's we got a handful of computers. I remember looking over the shoulder of Howard and Herb Tripp wondering just how much computers would affect me. Wow! Talk about change. Within three years, our electric typewriters were gone, shorthand was obsolete, and we were now doing word processing and using transcribing machines with tape recordings. Ralph and I did hold on to a room of typewriters for a number of years in D7, but technology had the best of us--for the best in the long run.
One activity I remember was choosing new textbooks, which we did every 6 years. Let’s look at the books and fill out an evaluation sheet on each listing good and bad points.
Then there were the evaluations of our school by the North Central Association (NCA). Ralph was in charge sometimes when the office became very nervous about it.
On a different note, the center of knowledge was the teacher's lounge. Can you imagine how many dumb jokes, pranks, friendly kidding, etc. came out of that room? I know you are all smiling as you think about it. Scherrer vs. Rose for example. Dave was a master at coming up with games of chance on when the snow pile would melt, NCAA basketball, Indy 500 (Max and Janet Guthrie), and so many others.
As you know, I hate transition and change. I remember four of these that especially bothered me. Perhaps not in this order, but one was in D4 when Dave told me he had enough of the classroom and was going to take a position as transportation director. A second was when Ralph moved from the classroom to administration. A third was Howard leaving our department to work with computer tech. The fourth was when Mike became athletic director. As each took a step in another direction the department changed. It was not always a good change for me.
After the other four left it was never the same. New names were in our department. Eric Thornton, Ron Harnish, and Debbie Darnell were added and stayed for a long time. Others who did not stay for long were Judy Smith, Sabrina Slone, Greg Goewert, Denny Schwartz, Chris Oswalt, and Brad Finken.
I remember at the end of my teaching career, I looked at the list of faculty members and realized that all the teachers I started with were gone. I was the last one remaining from the original group. I don't know if that was an honor, or if I was not smart enough to leave sooner. I was teary-eyed my last day because I realized something that was so much a part of my lifetime was over--and you know I hate change. But, we have memories for sure.
SUMMARY
Statistics don’t mean much until you attach people or things to those numbers. When you add up the total number of years that the “Fabulous-Five” taught at Norwell High School, the total number of students that we taught, and the accolades that our graduates received in the local newspapers, it doesn’t come close to conveying the mutual pride that you can see in the eyes of teachers and former students when they meet at the Bluffton Street Fair. WE HAD SOMETHING GOOD GOING FOR US AT THAT HIGH SCHOOL.
At a class reunion, Gene Donaghy, long-term, ultra-loyal Northern Wells school board member, asked Howard if he would get the guys to share some of their memories from the past. These five old-timers still meet, have dinner together (with wives) and re-tell stories of the good times—we had a blast! We loved our students, and hopefully most of these youth loved the business department in spite of all our “warts!” God has been good to Norwell High School!
Composed November 2024