With her final day as senior high English teacher just around the corner, Angie Lemire was the centre of attention Sunday (June 18) as colleagues, students and members of the community gathered to honour her retirement.

After 31 years at Jasper Junior/Senior High, and 33 on the job in total, Lemire will be finished at the end of next week. It won’t be the last class she teaches, however.

Lemire has been pivotal in maintaining and developing the high school’s international student program, and will continue to work as an ESL teacher throughout the summer. She might even find a teaching job overseas, she told the Fitzhugh.

“If I could find the ideal job internationally, I’d take it,” she said. “I love Jasper, but I don’t think I’m tied to it. I don’t think I need to be here.”

Lemire will leave with her photo “on both walls” as she puts it, once as a student, and once as a teacher. After graduating from high school in Jasper, she never thought she’d be back at all, let alone teaching here for more than three decades.

“I swore I would never set foot in this school again,” she said with a laugh. “You never know where you’re going.”

According to Neil Fenton, who as principal hired Lemire in 1976, it was clear from the beginning that she had a passion for teaching.

“She was always the consummate professional, and with experience she just got better and better,” he said. “Three of our own children took English from Angie throughout high school and they still feel that she was the best teacher they had. And many of her students feel that way.”

Several current students turned up to the Sunday celebration to offer their thanks. 

“Truly, the tough problem is not in identifying winners, it is in making winners out of ordinary people,” said Nailia Minnebaeva in a speech on behalf of all Lemire’s students. “We thank you for making winners out of us. We thank you for providing us the example of a winner.”

Maasaki Sakomoto and Jane Lee later performed a moving piece for guitar and piano, written by Sakomoto and entitled “At the End of the Class”. At the end of the song, there weren’t many dry eyes in the room.

Lemire who found the tributes to be “a humbling experience” believes she’s retiring at a good time.

“I am leaving when I still enjoy my job,” she said. “Maybe I’m one of the lucky ones.”

Dale Karpluk, the current principal at the high school and one of Lemire’s colleagues for the entire duration of her career in Jasper, was pleased with Sunday’s event at the Sawridge, which was attended by nearly 70 people.

“It was an absolutely wonderful tribute to Angie’s teaching career,” Karpluk said. “I loved the student participation, because students are what teaching is all about.”

Lemire, no doubt, would agree.