As he looked over papers he had just graded one last time at Pau-Wa-Lu Middle School on the final week before his official retirement, Ken Carr looked up and flashed a wide and familiar smile " just as he has done for the past 32 years.
"I sat down and figured it out the other day," he said. "My first group I taught back in Michigan, those kids just turned 43."
In 29 years with the Douglas County School District, Carr spent 10 years at Gardnerville Elementary School (1978-88), nine years at Scarselli Elementary School (1988-97) and 10 years at Pau-Wa-Lu (1997-2007). Before that, he taught three years in Michigan.
Interestingly enough, Carr didn't decide on education as a profession until he was 23.
"I was working construction; it was good work and I was making good money, but I just wasn't having fun at it," he said. "Then, one day a friend of mine asked if I wanted to come out and help him coach a Little League team. I said, 'Yeah, I'll help you out,' but I had no idea what I was getting into. Once I started, I knew, 'This is it. This is what I'm supposed to be doing with my life.' So I went back to school for two more years and got my degree."
The trail that led to the Carson Valley was just as interesting for Carr, who had grown up in Michigan.
"A buddy of mine found it on a roadmap," Carr said. "I chose this place because it was close to the ski areas, and once he got out here, he called me up and said, 'Carr, you've got to come out and see this place ... and there's still an opening."
No regrets.
"It's an honorable profession where you work with honorable people who have the best interest of the kids at heart," he said.
"There are a lot of great, great memories. It's been a fun ride. I've just had a blessed career because of all the great kids, all the great teachers I've worked with and all the great administrators.
"Teachers learn from other teachers and I was always learning from people I worked with."
Even today, those former students are still "his kids."
"I remember almost all of the kids, even the ones who are adults with kids of their own now," Carr said.
One of Carr's colleagues at Pau Wa Lu is a former student.
"Even now, it's still, Mr. Carr," he said with a laugh. "I keep saying, 'Call me Ken.'"
Call this a labor of love.
"You teach because of a passion not a pension," Carr said. "You go into it because that's what you love to do."
