By FRED KRONER
If Tim Lee did nothing else – and we assure you, he did much more – then he refuted a premise in the Thomas Wolfe novel, “You Can’t Go Home again.”
You can. He did. And he flourished.
Spoiler alert: This is a story with a happy ending.
Lee once walked the halls as a student at Oakwood High School, the same ones he has traversed as a teacher in the district, as a coach, as the athletic director and – most recently – as the principal.
In June, Lee will retire from a job that was not originally his life’s goal, but one for which he was well-suited. Numerous friends and colleagues will confirm that viewpoint.
“He was dean of students and athletic director while I was principal,” Brenda Ludwig said, “and I knew he was the right person to take over (as principal).
“The students loved him and were so respectful of him. They may not always agree (with a decision), but they respected it because they knew he thought it out.”
In the last 43 years at Oakwood, a western Vermilion County school, there have been three principals. Glenn Keever served 16 years, Ludwig had a 19-year tenure. Lee has been in the office for eight years.
Next year, current athletic director John Odle will take over as the Oakwood principal.
When doctors are personable and highly revered, it is said they have a good bedside manner. For people in education, it’s a special type of charisma.
It’s more than knowledge; it’s knowing how to treat people.
“He (Lee) learns every (student’s) name,” Ludwig said, “and can speak to them by name. He’s always present, whether in the halls, classrooms or the lunch room.
“He’d sit in the lunch room and talk to students. He’d make an effort during the week to go to all of the tables, even students sitting alone.”
Lynn Anderson first knew Lee when he was a teen-aged student in her health class.
“It is somewhat ironic that he was a student of mine, a colleague, we both coached, my AD, and then my boss,” Anderson said. “How lucky am I to have had that opportunity to be a part of his journey.”
Those years – decades, actually – provided Anderson ample opportunity to observe Lee and watch his development.
From his early years in education, Anderson could see that Lee was on the right track.
“He was organized, precise, efficient, and worked hard on the right things,” she said. “He was always cheerful, upbeat and positive.
“The role Tim has played has really made a big difference in the workplace, especially when it comes to meeting and sometimes exceeding the goals we seek.
“He inspires us to become sound professionals. He is a team player, trustworthy, active, cheerful – always – honest, friendly, reliable, resourceful, talented, loyal, self-disciplined, broad-minded, creative, and, oh so funny.
“He followed a great mentor and he himself is one, along with being an inspiration to all of us. Tim is an achiever who has worked hard and tirelessly to deliver excellent results.”
If it sounds like Lee was a natural for a career in education – a fact that is clear in retrospect – then imagine how it would have been had he followed his original career path?
***
As a member of the Oakwood graduating class of 1983, Lee thought he had an idea of what was in his future.
“I wanted to be a sportswriter,” Lee said.
His interests weren’t a secret to those who knew him as a teen-ager. Before he graduated from Oakwood, Lee was editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, the Oakwood Times.
“Judy Steffen (an English teacher) encouraged my writing,” Lee said. “Jan Bahnke (the Times advisor) picked up on my interest and got me a scholarship at Eastern Illinois University.
“It covered about everything but the housing.”
Lee took advantage of opportunities as he became the first member of his family to attend college.
“I wrote sports all four years (at EIU),” Lee said. “I was sports editor my junior year and editor of the yearbook my senior year.
“I did an internship (at the Springfield State Journal-Register) after my junior year.”
When he finished work on his journalism degree, Lee ventured out into the full-time work force.
He was hired to fill a newspaper vacancy in the sports department at downstate west Salem in the summer of 1987.
Lee quickly learned something about the profession that was not taught in college.
“I felt busy all the time,” he said. “I didn’t know if I wanted to be gone all the time.
“I asked my dad what he’d think about me going back (to school) to become a teacher.”
The elder Lee was receptive to the idea and – two weeks after he started his journalism career – Tim Lee was preparing to return to a college campus that fall as a student.
“It took me another year to get my teaching certification,” he said.
Part of the plan was that he wouldn’t leave the sports world behind.
“The coaching side was more appealing than writing about them,” Lee said. “It was a nice way to stay in athletics.”
While it took Lee a while to embrace the idea, some of his high school instructors had no doubt education was where he belonged.
“I always knew he’d be a good teacher,” said Ray Wittmann, a long-time Oakwood teacher and coach. “He was a natural.
“He is such a good communicator and he identifies with people. I kept encouraging him, ‘Think about teaching.’ I got Tim back into education and the position he was made for.”
When it was time for Lee to do his student teaching, he returned to his alma mater under the tutelage of a teacher that he said made the classroom environment “fun, and made you feel important.”
He student-taught under Wittmann.
The story has been told that when Lee was in high school, Wittmann cut him from the basketball team. The former coach dissected the truth.
“He was in a talented class and basketball wasn’t a real love,” Wittmann said. “Baseball was his real love. I didn’t really cut him. We talked it out. I talked him into videotaping (the games) his junior and senior year.”
In his athletic career with the Comets, Lee was a member of the cross-country team that not only won the Vermilion County championship, but also had all seven runners finish among the top seven placers.
“I worked hard to get him out for cross-country,” Wittmann said.
In the fall of 1988, Lee was hired to teach English and – yes – journalism at Danville High School. He was also in charge of the school newspaper in his first year as an educator.
Lee had no regrets about his new career choice.
“Teaching was a good choice for me,” he said, “and more suited me personality-wise.”
Lee married his high school sweetheart, the former Dawn Trowbridge, after the 1988-89 school year ended.
He had a chance to return to Oakwood as a faculty member for his second year in teaching (1989-90), but originally rejected the offer.
When he had returned to college, Lee added a major in history to his resume. The open positions at Oakwood were identical to what he was teaching at Danville.
However, when a follow-up offer was made to teach freshmen social studies at Oakwood, Lee made the move.
“Teaching freshman was a great fit for both,” Anderson said. “He was the one to teach the freshman the school song.
“He loved doing that and being competitive at pep assemblies – and I mean competitive. What spirit he brought.”
Lee’s teaching and coaching career at Oakwood was interrupted after three years when a reduction in force forced him to look for work elsewhere.
For the 1992-93 school year, Lee was on staff at nearby Westville High School.
His love for athletics prompted Lee to take on the coaching positions.
At Oakwood, he was a boys’ basketball assistant for Wittmann. At Westville, Lee joined Jeff Millis’ staff.
“I went from Ray, where you are getting as many shots as you can, to Jeff, where you slow it down,” Lee said.
After teaching in three different districts in his first five years, Lee found a permanent home. Starting in 1993-94, he was back at Oakwood, where he remained for more than a quarter of a century.
Years later – when he replaced Wittmann as the Oakwood boys’ basketball head coach – Lee used some of each coach’s philosophy as he built his program.
“I tried to merge them,” Lee said, “always looking for ways to use Ray’s up-tempo offense and mix in Jeff’s defensive intensity.”
Lee served as boys’ basketball head coach for five years at Oakwood. His best year was his initial one. The Comets were 18-9 during the 1996-97 season.
“I felt our teams played hard,” Lee said. “Everybody remembers the big games and the athletes, but when I look back, I remember the relationships that were made.
“You think you’re going to school everyday doing your job, then you realize, you made an impact. The relationships you build are the most important.”
Lee said his time as the athletic director was when “I felt I found my sweet spot,” and Anderson offered confirmation.
“When he became the AD (2004), he encouraged many students to become active in any sport or become active in clubs,” Anderson said. “He continues to do that as principal.
“He reached many who otherwise would not have been active in anything. He just had a way about him.”
Wittmann had no hesitation in turning the basketball program over to Lee.
“He was a very good classroom teacher, and an excellent coach,” Wittmann said. “I never felt bad that he replaced me.
“He knows the game. He deserved it. He had his own style and put in the time to be successful.”
In the 2005-06 school year, Lee started an eight-year run as Oakwood’s cross-country head coach.
***
Lee held a variety of titles at Oakwood in addition to teacher and coach. He was the newspaper advisor, athletic director, dean of students and principal.
“I didn’t do anything for more than about eight or nine years,” he said. “That helped keep me fresh.”
It took convincing, however, for Lee to pursue some of the positions. He wasn’t sure he was cut out for the administrative side.
“The AD part excited me,” Lee said, “but I’d never been in a discipline position.”
He accepted the challenge and developed his own style.
“No one would say, ‘Tim was hard-nosed,’” Lee said, “but if you develop relationships (with students) before they show up in my office, it’s easier to deal with them.”
Lee had opportunities to take his talents elsewhere, but remained loyal to his hometown.
“I interviewed at one place,” he said, “but my family was from here, the boys (Cameron, Logan and Parker) were growing up and you like what you’re doing, and the co-workers.
“Then, all of a sudden you realize you’re just a few years from retirement.”
Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lee’s final 16 months on the job are unlike any of his other three decades in education.
“It has been more of a slog this year,” Lee said. “COVID made education very, very difficult.
“By far, this has been my most difficult year as a principal.”
Anderson said the staff appreciates the efforts Lee has made.
“His students and staff have been his priorities; to keep us safe, healthy as possible, and in school,” Anderson said. “None of us know how much time and effort he put in over the summer and at the beginning of the school year so that we could be safe and stay in.
“Knowing him, he loved the challenge and because of his background he was going to do everything in his power to make it work for OHS.”
***
As Lee prepares to step aside, he is pleased to see the number of familiar faces scattered around the building.
Several of his former students have followed the path that he took and returned to Oakwood as staff members.
Among them are Amy Baumeister, Josh DeVors, Stephanie (Denius) Marsh and Ryan McFarland.
“It verifies the culture we’re trying to put in the building,” Lee said. “They enjoyed their four years here and wanted to come back and be a part of it.
“I always look to hire some of my own (graduates), but you invariably think, ‘This kid is a teacher?’ They are no longer a former student, but a co-worker.”
Ludwig recognizes the pull of the community.
“This is a place that loyalty is No.1,” Ludwig said. “People, once they’re here a while, want to stay here.
“I know he was sought after and could have taken other positions, but the loyalty of Oakwood always came first.
“When I retired (as principal), he is exactly who I wanted to get the job. He needed to have that moment. He always put students first. When you do that, you’ll always be successful.”
Lee didn’t consider that he was doing anything special.
“When you’re young, you’re going to work everyday doing a job, and all of a sudden you realize you’ve had a career,” he said. “It’s hard to believe it has been that long.”
Ludwig offered what she believes is the key to Lee’s successful tenure at Oakwood.
“He has a passion for the students and a passion for Oakwood,” Ludwig said. “He wanted to see it be great.”
Though Lee won’t be in the building on a regular basis when the 2021-22 school year starts, the family will still have a presence at Oakwood High School.
His wife, Dawn, who started her career at Oakwood in the fall of 1994 as a special education instructor, is a counselor and is not yet ready to retire.
Tim Lee’s Bucket List includes plenty of activities to keep him busy.
“There are enough things I’d like to do, places I’d like to see,” he said. “I’ve been to 15 major league parks and I’d like to check off some more as well as state parks and national parks.
“I’d like to travel and read.”
Every once in a while, Lee’s mind reverts to sportswriter mode.
“I still feel that (urge) a little bit,” he said.
Wittmann has some ideas how Tim Lee can spend part of his retirement.
“I hope he comes out and plays some golf,” Wittmann said, before paying him the highest compliment. “I’d have him for a son if I could.”
