MR. STODOLA

I believe that Mr. Stodola (Joe) was a 6th grade teacher at Magee, while I was there. But when the Two Rivers school system put all the 6th grades at Clarke, Mr. Stodola joined me there for its inaugural 6th grade year.

I didn't meet up with Mr. Stodola until 7th grade. After one year of 6th graders, he was moved up. He taught science to the 7th grade, and math to the 8th grade. I had him both years. Science was 2nd hour. Math (and homeroom) was 1st hour.

For other stories about Stodola, see my entries on Kevin Dehne, B.J. Lutterman, Jeff Messerman, Jenny Malley, Cory Schultz, Wade Wachholz, Chris Storlie, Randy Ertman, and probably several others.

Stodola seemed like a decent man. But he also seemed to have a hard time relating to students. But man, the guy could tell stories. A week wouldn't go by where Stodola would rock back and forth on his heels, and say, "I once knew a man..." I remember him telling us about some football player (perhaps on his high school team) who jumped through the round paper thing coming onto the field, caught his cleats on it, then tumbled to the ground. Of course who can forget his story about the guy with the glass eye? On a very cold day, he went into a diner. When the waitress came by, he said, "It's so cold, I think I froze my eye." Then he took a spoon and tapped it on his glass eye. The waitress nearly fainted. I remember once that B.J. kind of poked fun at him at some point about all his stories. Stodola got defensive and insisted that they were all true. B.J. wasn't doubting him however. He just kidded him about them.

Stodola had really big arms. He needed them at lunch one day in 7th grade. I'm not sure what exactly happened. But class of 1988's Bill Tadych got out of control, and had to be "escorted" to the office. By escorted, I mean dragged while trying to fight every step of the way. It took Stodola, Mr. Ashenbrenner and a third teacher to physically handle him. We didn't see Bill again for a few days.

I generally got along with the guy. Although I don't think he understood me. I don't think he understood a lot of kids. It was sort of like he expected everyone to be mature and act like adults. Of course one can't expect kids to act like adults all the time. It seemed like he just couldn't grasp that fact.

I'm not sure when exactly Stodola left Clarke. But he's no longer there. In fact, he now appears to be the principal of Holy Cross School in Mishicot. It's a private, Catholic school. I believe he's lived in Mishicot for many years.