Breaking News
Top News

‘Where I was meant to be’: Longtime Hughesville educator Bob Webster honored on 95th birthday

By Pat Crossley 7 min read

HUGHESVILLE -- On a rainy Sunday afternoon, the East Lycoming Historical Society was filled with people who had come out to honor one of their favorite teachers, Bob Webster. The occasion -- his 95th birthday.

Although Webster couldn't see the people who waited their turn to speak with him -- his eyesight has failed over the years -- when they spoke their names, he knew who they were, just some of the thousands of students he had taught in his long career in education.

Webster began teaching in 1951 at a little country school at Mazeppa which is near Mifflinburg in Union County.

"I started in a so-called one-room school. There were no bathrooms in the building and no drinking water. I had the kids carry water from a nearby farm in the milk can. I had grades four, five and six the first year," Webster said.

Heat was provided by a wood stove.

"I had to go up every night to build the fire and check it to make sure it lasts the morning in the winter. I had to build the fire. And then I used coal when we got into the main part of the winter," he said.

To put it mildly, Webster was born to be an educator, choosing to go into teaching as a profession because he "just had a hankering to know as much as I could learn and pass it on to kids."

"I just loved the kids and I loved geography," Webster said.

"I specialized in World Geography. Of course in a country school we taught everything, all but music. I never could sing," he said with a laugh.

After a few years at the Mazeppa school, Webster was offered a position in the East Lycoming School District, which had just been formed. He stayed there until his "official" retirement as an employed teacher in 1987.

"That was after I had 36 years in," he stated.

Then teachers started asking him to volunteer in their classrooms, sharing his knowledge of the geography of the world to new generations of learners.

"This eye problem happened way before I expected. So I quit because of my eyesight I couldn't see to do leading and make up the grades and so on. So I started volunteering with teachers," he shared.

"For 70 consecutive years, I have been in the classrooms of Pennsylvania," Webster said.

Although he admitted he couldn't sing, his creative way of teaching students about the world focused on his amazing ability as an artist.

Everywhere there seemed to be drawings and paintings that Webster had done, most after he had left the classroom.

"When I had to leave the classroom, I still couldn't see. So those drawings … I did them all for something to do. I missed going into the classroom so much. And I did it from memory of things in and around the town of Hughesville," he said.

Some of his former students remember the maps that Mr. Webster drew, free-hand, on the chalkboard of places in the world. He would come in before class and complete his drawings and hide them behind a pulldown map.

"Mr. Webster is the greatest teacher I had all through school. I don't care who you were. Mr. Webster could grab your attention. He used to use elaborate drawings. And when he started talking about them, just reached out and pulled you right in. He was that type of person," said Brett Gray, who had come to honor his former teacher.

"I think he was my greatest teacher in high school. He's just an awesome man. And he liked racecars, so later on in life, I was a racecar driver. So we had something in common. And he still likes racing," Gray said.

His wife, Margaret, also had Webster as a teacher.

"I just loved his class. He was interesting and his stories -- he just captured everybody," she said.

Other students had come to spend a few moments reminiscing with Mr. Webster about the impact he had on their lives.

"I have so many (memories) of Mr. Webster in class. Drawing the maps on the board. I remember, you know, with all the color maps to show us where all the nations were in the world and things. That's pretty fantastic memories that we have of him," said Ken Burkholder, a student of Webster's in the 1970s.

"We respected him so much. He had these Popeye forearms and all the kids were like so afraid of him and respected him so much. You did not mess around Mr. Webster. You behaved yourself. You listened, you did your best," Burkholder shared.

"We love Mr. Webster so much. He just meant so much to all of us all these years. Just the respect and things that he taught us to grow up to be good men and women. You know, he really taught us everything. He's fantastic," Burkholder added.

Sally Laird Connell, who was visiting from outside the area, had stopped in to see her former teacher. She graduated in 1980 from Hughesville High School and had Webster during her high school years.

"He was really good with putting the maps together and sharing all the different places throughout the United States to visit and see, and he was very good with all of us," she said.

She also credited Webster with sparking an interest in visiting places that he had taught about.

"The biggest one that I've been to that he talked about was the hot springs in Arkansas. Last year, my husband and I were actually there and visited it and it brought back memories. A lot of the different places now we're just getting out there and visiting now as we get older and traveling. It's neat when you see these places you learned about when he taught us and mapped it out and all that. And then you see it and you automatically think of Mr. Webster," Connell said.

The accolades just kept coming from students who had been taught by Webster. Taking a seat next to him they shared with him how he had brought the outside world alive for them.

For Bill Foresman, a member of the board at the historical society, it was the "gift of gab" that his former teacher had.

"It wasn't just BS, it was good stuff. He could talk. And he had this talent -- you can see it around here -- he would draw freehand on the blackboard a map of the United States or Russia or Canada or whatever. You can see the talent he had all around here," Foresman said, pointing to Webster's collection of art on display at the event.

Over his long career as an educator, Webster had heard that the profession was changing, but he didn't experience those changes in his classroom.

"I listen to the news and they tell me what's happened with teaching and what's being taught, and what's happening to kids. I never sensed that. Honestly, I never changed my teaching. No one ever interfered with me. I never used a textbook," he said.

"I taught World Geography and then volunteered with local history. Education has certainly changed but I can't see it. Hughesville is not a big city. They never bothered me. I never changed my teaching in 2020, which is the 70-year mark. I did it the same way and never had any difficulty," he said.

Webster admitted that if given the chance and the circumstances he would go back to teaching. "Absolutely in a minute, in a minute," he said.

"Ninety-five years have taken their toll. I can't even mow the lawn. I can't see to do that. Teaching is all I know, and that's all I want to do. I just love the students and love the classroom situation. And I feel it's where I was meant to be. I couldn't quit. So I volunteered and kept right on going," he added.

Starting at /week.