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Hurricane
teacher leaves legacy on earth
By Patrice St.
Germain patrices@thespectrum.com
HURRICANE
- With tears and laughter, teachers and students at Hurricane Elementary
remembered a very special teacher and loving person Tuesday.
Principal
Dan Spendlove and first grade teachers Shannon Hughes and Peggy Clyde said
Pamela Pace, who died Saturday after battling cancer, was a good friend and
teacher.
Pace taught at Sunset Elementary and had been at Hurricane
Elementary for the last 12 years. She left her first grade class in early
October after becoming ill.
"We had a substitute in her class, Spendlove
said. "We were all hoping she could return."
The Washington County School
District crisis team was at the school Monday to help students and personnel
deal with Pace's death.
"It has been really hard," Spendlove said. "She
taught here for 12 years."
Pace taught second grade for four years and
first grade for the last eight years.
Spendlove asked the school district
to close school early so the staff could attend the funeral today in New
Harmony.
Assistant superintendent Rex Wilkey said the special request was
granted because of the kind of teacher Pace was.
"Everyone who knew Pam
is saddened," Wilkey said. "She was a great teacher, the kind you want your
child to have. I was out at the school on Monday, and there were a lot of
tears."
Spendlove worked with Pace for nine years and said in those
years, he never heard anything negative about Pace.
"Pam was a genuine
loving, gentle person," he said. "If there was a student I knew needed extra
love and care, I put them in her class because I knew they would get that from
her."
Pace had been a recipient of the WCSD Superintendent's Award for
Excellence.
First grade teacher Shannon Hughes said she worked with Pace
for the last five years.
"We were going into our sixth year working
together," Hughes said. "Pam was wonderful. She loved every child and always
found something positive about all her students."
Musical and creative,
Pace also loved to laugh.
"I keep hearing her laughter," Peggy Clyde
said.
Clyde, another first grade teacher, has taught at Hurricane
Elementary for 24 years and loved working with Pace.
"Her laughter was
contagious," she said. "Pam, when laughing, would often raise one leg, and she
laughed all the time."
Thoughtful was another word used a lot to describe
Pace.
"Every holiday she would bring in these enormous sugar cookies,"
Hughes said. "They were the best sugar cookies, and she brought one in for
everyone who worked at the school, not just the teachers."
Pace was known
to give cards and little thoughtful things to let her friends and fellow
co-workers know she cared.
"I really like bagels so when Pam went to New
York, she brought me back a whole bag of bagels," Hughes said. "Pam was more
than a colleague. She was a friend.
Whether it was New York or Armenia,
Pace always brought back little gifts for those at the school.
Not only
did she provide gifts and cookies, Pace kept everyone up on new teaching methods
and laws, Hughes said.
Third grade teacher Debra Hurst said Pace always
made everyone feel like a soul mate.
"Pam touched everyone's
lives like no one else," Hurst said. "We are all blessed for knowing her, and I
know I will never teach the same because of Pam. She has taught and left such a
legacy here on earth."
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1999 The Spectrum.
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