Saying goodbye to Mr. Palmer

by Mr. Sheehy

We honored retiring teachers today and our department publicly said goodbye to Mr. Palmer. We wrote a tribute to him that contained a lot of personal stories, which I won’t share online, but I wanted to publish the last comments, which describe something I try to make true in my classroom as well. May I do so as well as you have, Mr. Palmer!

Mr. Palmer enjoyed his students, having a blast with them and working diligently for them. He never put them down and never saw their academic struggles as making them less important as people.

Nick Palmer grasps that in the story of his life, he is living a kind of comedy, and as he has told that story to us—in lunch, in meetings, on hall duty, at staff parties—we have laughed ourselves to tears and howled with joy.

The story of our department and school is richer for his sparking such laughter and joy among us.

In recognition of his retirement, the Pine Needle posted a previously unpublished profile of Mr. Palmer. Read it!