Mr. Monroe tells La Conner kids goodbye

After 12 years working alongside teachers who educate La Conner’s youngest students, it’s time for dedicated school volunteer Don Monroe to hang up his hat and “retire” as he moves onto the next stage of his life.

Four days a week, four or more hours each day, “Mr. Monroe” has been a dependable presence at La Conner Elementary school.

Students know they can count on Monroe to calmly and gently guide them through any academic troubles they’re struggling with as he works with them one-on-one in the hallways outside their classrooms, say the teachers who have worked closely with him over the years.

Monroe can share interesting stories about his past, full of travels and witnessing aviation history.

“He’s been a part of our school and school culture for a long time,” fourth grade teacher Cammy Alumbres said of her long-time “lunch buddy” and admired friend.

He’s worked most closely with the kindergarten, first and fourth-grades, occasionally tutoring or assisting with the older classrooms—such as when the fifth-graders study their aviation unit, a perfect place for the retired Boeing software engineer to be.

A man known for having many talents, Monroe was a photographer and eyewitness to major historical developments in the aviation world more than 40 years ago.

Inventor Paul MacCready, who Monroe describes as the “father of human-powered flight”, won awards for his pioneering work that advanced solar and human-powered aircraft.

MacCready’s plane, the “Gossamer Albatross” was the first human-powered aircraft to fly across the English Channel in 1979, and its predecessor, the “Gossamer Condor” is now part of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum’s collection.

Monroe was there to document MacCeady’s work throughout, and was paid to travel and take pictures from the “backup boat” underneath the Albatross and its pilot as they made their way across the channel.

Photos and details of his experience are on his website, donaldmonroe.com, he said.

Born in a small town in Maryland, Monroe graduated from the University of Maryland and left for California, traveling around to various west-coast locations throughout the years for work. He then lived in Arizona with his wife before settling in La Conner in 2005.

“It’s the tops. It’s a great place,” Monroe said of La Conner.

In Arizona, he’d volunteered to rock babies at a local children’s hospital in Arizona after reading a magazine request for “volunteer huggers” to hold young, sickly children whose parents couldn’t be there.

“I never raised any kids of my own,” he said. “When I started working at the hospital, I realized I really loved it, holding two or three-month-old babies. And I just loved them.”

A colleague of his suggested that he spend some time in local schools, Monroe said.

“She said, ‘Don, I bet some teacher would love to have you in her classroom,’” he said.

“So when we got up here in La Conner, I talked to the principal, Peg Seeling, and started volunteering in fourth-grade…and here I am,” Monroe said.

Kindergarten teacher Judy Zimmerman said Monroe is a fascinating person and that his volunteer work was greatly appreciated.

“All of the teachers in our building are so thankful for his gentle ways of tutoring the students each day,” she said in an email. “He will be missed.”

“He’s just been a real gift to the school,” Ann Van Pelt, the elementary school’s administrative assistant, said.

He’s also been active in his Shelter Bay community, Janelle Miner from the Communications Committee said in an email, and that he will be missed very much there.

Monroe plans to move back to Arizona to be closer to family.

School staff said goodbye in a small celebration in the elementary library after school last month, presenting him with small thank you gifts made by students from each of their classes—paper cutout planes, clouds and kites with notes from the students, Zimmerman said.

On his “official” final day last Wednesday, Monroe spent it like any other—tutoring the fourth, first-grades and kindergartners in the hallway and working with them quietly in the classroom.

He recalled some funny moments with the students, who like all children, occasionally speak with no “filter.”

“There was a kid who asked how old I am and when I said 74, he said ‘no!’” Monroe said, laughing and miming how the shocked boy had spread out his arms and flung himself up against the hallway wall dramatically.

What was the highlight of his last day?

When all the first graders tried to hug him all at once, he said. “I was afraid I was going to fall down.”

“I’m going to miss the kids, the teachers and miss the school… It’s all been very nice,” Monroe said. “It’s been a very rewarding experience.”