ADVISER’S NOTE:  Staff Writer Madeline Jaloszynski interviewed Mr. John Dunlap about his plans to retire at the end of the school year.  Then, she followed up that interview with a series of questions to his wife.  As President Kevin Shaw said, “We now have the He Said/She Said version of the story.”  Enjoy!

Math teacher John Dunlap plans to retire this year. He’s been an athletic director, a world traveler, a husband to Mrs. Char Dunlap, executive assistant to the school president, and one of the kindest, most thoughtful teachers here at NDA.

Dunlap has been a teacher for 45 years. Before spending five years, Dunlap spend eight years at Preble, 20 years at Southwest as well as working between the Catholic middle schools. He also spent some time teaching in Kenosha.

Dunlap plans to spend most of his time after retirement playing his favorite game Mahjong. He currently is on level 488 and is evidently quite good at it.

Dunlap also plans to continue announcing for sporting events and serving as a substitute teacher around the middle schools.

His wife, Char Dunlap, plans on continuing to work for a few more years.

The math teacher said, “I’ve been thinking about retiring for a couple years now, but I thought that this was the year to do it. I truly am going to miss the kids the most.”

“My favorite memory from teaching is that moment when you’re working with a kid on a certain subject and all of a sudden it just clicks,” he said.

The downside of teaching? “As fun as grading is, I won’t miss it at all,” he said.

Dunlap does not plan on having a huge party for his retirement; however, he does plan on taking his family out to dinner.

“Mr. Dunlap is one of the kindest teachers I know. He always remembers my birthday and half birthdays and sends me a card. It just makes my day,” said English teacher Carolyn Brown.

What follows below are the answers from Mrs. Dunlap, John’s wife who also works here at NDA.  To our knowledge, Mr. Dunlap doesn’t know we interviewed his wife and hasn’t read her answers.  In other words, Here is the SHE SAID part of our story!

How do YOU feel about your husband’s retirement?  

“It was my hope that we could always retire together; however, our age difference does not make that possible.  As time has passed, I have not only accepted the idea, but am very excited for him. In addition, I recently adopted a four 10-hour day work week, so we will have three-day weekends together.  It gives me an opportunity to share a little bit of his retirement with him.”

What does John plan to do as a retired teacher/athletics assistant?  

“I think John would like to do some subbing, ride his bike a lot in the summer, and he will definitely stay involved with athletics as long as the school will have him.  After all, we have a sign in our house that states: ‘This marriage is on hold for the basketball season.’ In fact, we had to plan our wedding between football and basketball seasons (Nov 9).”

What plans do YOU have for him?  (such as, do you expect him to have dinner ready for you when you get home?)

“John’s idea of cooking is asking me which restaurant we are going to. Well, I’m sure my answer would be much different than what he would say.  But, I will need to have a ‘honey do’ list for him; otherwise he will procrastinate the day away.  He can get lost on the computer playing Mahjong and Bejeweled, and now Facebook. John will have more time to tackle bigger house maintenance tasks during the week like window washing.  He is also very active in our church and cuts their grass which takes hours. We recently got involved in Airbnb during the Packer weekends, so he can now take on more of this responsibility in preparing our house for Airbnb guests.”

What do YOU think led to his decision to retire?  

“John’s been a dedicated teacher for over 45 years, and I think he is finally ready for something different.  He loves the students and being a teacher, so I know we will still see him around, just on his schedule. Most of our friends and family are retired, so this will allow him to have a flexible schedule to try some new things and start traveling to see more family out of state without being locked into a school schedule.”

You didn’t ask, but I want to share what will I miss by not having John at NDA.   

“Even though we have been in the same building for five years, we would rarely see each other.  We didn’t share lunch or even sit near each other during staff in-service or staff development. By chance we would run into each other in the hallways.   But what I will really miss are the little things he would do for me. Each afternoon, before John leaves school, he moves my vehicle closer to the building so that when I leave in the evening, in the dark and cold, my van is closer to the building.  When it snows, he scrapes my windshield, and when I have heavy things to carry in or out of my office to my van, he is always willing to help me. Every now and then he would pop up to my office with a leftover treat from his Homeroom. I have definitely been spoiled!  Yes, I will miss having John at NDA!”