Mr. Bill: The Exit Interview

 

This year, Mr. William DeHart, the only math teacher Alsion has ever had, is retiring.Witherly Heights caught up with Mr. Bill before he leaves our halls for good and is happily, we hope, in the wind.

Witherly Heights: Why are you retiring?

Bill DeHart: One, I can. I have worked hard and I have saved money and so I am at a position where I can do it [retire]. I really like teaching so it is not something I have come to and just said, “Oh I am just really tired of this.” But there is all kinds of other things I want to do and it seems like it’s time to do it. And the kind of the last straw is that my wife is retiring in June and so we’re both going to retire at the same time.

WH: How long have you been teaching at Alsion?

BD: 14 years.

WH: Teaching overall? Or did you start teaching at Alsion?

BD: Alsion is my first teaching thing I did. I have always wanted to teach and it was always one of those things that … I was studying engineering, and that late night when I am studying for a test and I realize that I know nothing, and I’m thinking maybe I should go into teaching now, you know maybe it is time for a change. And you know, finally I taught Sunday school, I taught chess, I taught youth soccer referees. I just have done things all along the way, and so it was something I wish I had done a long time ago because it is really something that I like doing.

WH: What was your job before Alsion?

BD: I was a semiconductor process engineer. Both with companies that made semiconductors as well as working with companies that made the machines that were used to make semiconductors. And it was good work, it was interesting. I worked with a lot of start ups and I found I liked that environment a lot more than an established company. You get so many different things you get to do or have to do, it was kinda fun. But that [semiconductor] business went away from here anyway. And became big businesses, with small companies doing it.

WH: Have you only taught math or have you taught other subject as well?

BD: I have taught other subjects: science for a while, P.E for a long time, and current events.

WH: What are you going to do after you retire? Do you have a bucket list?

BD: Yes I have a bucket list. Immediately upon retiring, well on the second week, I am going fishing cause that’s just one of my favorite things to do. My wife and I are going to travel. I got some photo projects I want to work on. I have aspirations to make a really huge metal gong. It’s something I have just wanted to do and there is a place, a foundry, in Oakland that I can work with on it. So that’s kind of my projects. If you hear some big gong going off in Fremont sometime, that will be mine.

WH: What do you like and dislike about teaching at Alsion?

BD: I like classroom teaching. I really like the time in the classroom interacting with students. I like it when students succeed and it’s not just succeed. Some students do well, you know those ones, you know that’s fine and I’m happy for them. It’s the ones that struggle and then they achieve success. I really, really like that. And, what I dislike, is I don’t like bullies, I don’t do well with people that bully, I find myself wanting to deal with it harshly and I don’t like that nature, and I don’t like ignorance. It manifests itself in some many ways but it’s harmful.

 2009: Mr. Bill (bottom, far left) on the very first Ex-Term trip to Manzanar

 

WH: Are there any changes that you have noticed about Alsion? Which one was your favorite change and which one was your least favorite one?

BD: I really disliked when we had our first administrative change, it needed to happen, but I disliked it because it meant that we were moving from being a startup school to becoming kinda all grown-up. And some of the things we could do or were able to do is we were just getting things going, we were kind of settling into a routine of how things got done, its important to get there, but in some ways I miss that new school thing.

WH: What was your most memorable experience here?

BD: You know that’s hard to say, and I know that it is not an experience, but I would say every Death Valley Biome Trip was memorable for me, and just sticks with me but there are so many moments here and it’s hard to go through and say the “oh wow” moment of all time.

WH: So what do you think makes the Death Valley trip so distinguished from other Biome Trips?

BD: Even though you are in Furnace Creek, you’ve got this hotel and there is a cafe and all that, your actually very very isolated. You are a long way away from anything really except just that one place and I think I liked that isolation. Just the stark beauty of it, I enjoyed that. I liked the students in Death Valley. There  is a freedom to it, that I think many of you it’s your first time being in a place where you can just go wander around. And think that just to see how everybody responds to it is something really nice.

WH: Going back to starting teaching, how did you end up at Alsion, how did you find this job?

BD: It was a business banker friend of mine, who knew Michael [Leahy, founder of Alsion]. He knew I liked teaching and Michael needed somebody that would be interested in teaching but had industry experience. And so he introduced us and I was at a point where I had been in semiconductors for a long time. It was leaving Silicon Valley and my choices were rapidly becoming moved somewhere else or find something else to do or travel all the time. And so I had been doing the traveling all the time for a while and I was really ready for a change. So I was looking around for something and he introduced us and one thing lead to another.

WH: Is there anything you would like the students to know about you before you retire, that we haven’t asked you?

BD: Let’s see…. I really loved it here. I think it was great. The students were great. When you asked the question about what’s the thing I like most about Alsion or most proud of at Alsion, and in some ways I think it is to be determined. Cause it’s not something I did everyday, I think it’s the students that we helped to launch into the world. And if you think about it in 14 years, really some of the older students are just now getting out and having an impact on the world. Up till now they have just been getting their education and getting started in life and getting their first jobs. There is a point where you begin to settle down and got everything getting taken care of. And now you begin to look around and ask what else can I be doing? And I feel like this place is where you come out with this sense of there is other things you can be doing. And I hope that that becomes for many of you a part of your life. So I look forward to one of you becoming the President of the United States or getting a Nobel Prize or hearing about somebody doing something really great in our community that need to be done. Academics are one thing…but have we launched good people in the world?