Page 83 of the 1969 Bluffton High School Buccaneer

By Bill Herr

In this column, I have written about the greatest sports teams at Bluffton High School I have seen, the greatest coaches there that I have rubbed elbows with when I taught there, and some great BHS athletes I have seen in action. This is based on my attending Bluffton Exempted Village Schools for 12 years, graduating, and being a Pirate fan up to the present.

This column might be my favorite. It is about a person who, in my opinion, was a most amazing person, and the greatest teacher I ever knew. She is Mrs. Margaret Weaver. Teaching Latin when I arrived as a mathematics teacher at Bluffton High School, she became a close friend. We even shared the same classroom my first year at Bluffton.

Years later, she and her husband, Dr. Richard Weaver, who was my physics professor at Bluffton College, became residents at Mennonite Memorial Home when I was chaplain there.

Both of us were Pirate teachers under Principal Dan Rumer. He once told me that Margaret Weaver was the only teacher that ever intimidated him. He meant it as a compliment. She was powerfully enthusiastic in her academic field, kind and generous in friendship to her academic colleagues, and memorable to her students.

When Mrs. Weaver was offered the position of Latin teacher at Bluffton High School, she was hesitant because she and her husband were raising seven children. But she accepted and taught the classics at BHS for 25 years. She expanded the classic offerings there, adding Latin III and Mythology. She designed a course, "Human Values: Insights through Ancient Greece and Rome," and wrote her own textbook on the subject.

My daughter, Brigette Hoff, who is now the present Latin teacher at Bluffton High School, took all four years of these courses under Mrs. Weaver. When she attended The University of Akron, she showed her copy of Mrs. Weaver's book to a professor there that immediately asked for a copy to use as a resource for her classes.

Mrs. Weaver's students studied ancient texts as well as more contemporary readings. These studies involved universal themes of love and friendship, pain and pleasure, vice and virtue. Her hundreds of students came to Roman banquets dressed like the people of those times. She took them on trips to the Toledo Museum of Art. She was beloved and respected by her students.

In 1978, Bluffton High School was awarded the Hildesheim Vase for the excellence of the classics program. My daughter said of Mrs. Weaver, "Enthusiasm for her subject was contagious, and she pushed you to want to learn more in her classes. Her slide presentations from her travels in Italy and Greece made her Latin classrooms come alive with her amazing stories. She treated all her studentswith respect and kindness. She had high expectations for them."

Another former student, Mary Ann Ring, mentioned Mrs. Weaver's enthusiasm and her love of being in the classroom. "She gave each class all of her energy. She was a one-of-a-kind teacher."

Mrs. Weaver had a good sense of humor and a hearty laugh. She once fell backward into a wastebasket in her classroom. She explained how she reacted in these words: "After I fell, it was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop. I said, 'It's all right. You can laugh.""

Her husband, Dr. Weaver, was her biggest helper when she spoke at many regional and national classics conferences. When she gave talks in the Bluffton community, he often assisted and accompanied her in these events.

I asked four of her children to share one of the things they liked most about their mother. Jerry said, "She was always trying to do the right thing, to do her best. She gave it her all in everything she did." Paul said, "I appreciated her love of teaching, and her commitment to excellence."

Marsha shared, "Mom said, 'As long as they make erasers in pencils, it's okay to make mistakes."" She had a plaque on the wall that said, "Dig within, there lies the well spring of good. Ever dig and it will ever flow." Marsha said that saying captured her mother who was always digging to learn new things and came up with good stuff.

Sally shared, "What will stand out for me and will make me forever grateful is how mom, without my realizing it most of the time, has given me the gift of independence of thought and decision making, showed me the value of friendship and hospitality, demonstrated the fruits of giving your all to your vocational calling, modeled commitment to a faith community, and shared her love of life with those around her."

Now you see why I selected Margaret Weaver as the GOAT (greatest of all time) from all the wonderful teachers that I have known. She was truly a one-of-a-kind teacher and person.