POSTED: Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2009

Education scholarship honors humble, hard-working Rob Brand

The elementary education professors at Western Washington University wanted to start their own scholarship to support students who want to become elementary school teachers.

When they discussed who the scholarship should be named for, who it should honor, they decided in a snap: Rob Brand.

"He's such a fixture here in elementary ed," said Chris Ohana, chair of the Elementary Education Department at Woodring College of Education. "He has such a passion for kids, and for preparing teachers."

Brand served as an elementary school principal in Bellingham for nearly 30 years. Now 72, he retired from Bellingham School District in 1993, but works part-time at Western supervising education majors getting their first taste of classroom experience, as well as soon-to-graduate majors doing their student teaching.

"It's a great fit," he said. "It's a passion for me."

A Bellingham native, Brand attended the Campus School at Western as a youngster. He graduated with an education degree from Western in 1959 and taught in Oak Harbor for several years before returning to Bellingham.

He taught at Carl Cozier and Silver Beach elementary schools for a few years while he earned his master's degree in educational administration at Western, then became principal at, in order, Roosevelt (the old one), Sunnyland, Parkview, Roosevelt (the current one) and Lowell elementary schools.

This school year, Western students supervised by Brand are working with teachers and students at Carl Cozier. Brand confers with the staff at Cozier, helps put together seminars for the Western students, observes them in action in the classrooms, and shares his insights with them afterward.

"He is very meticulous in his observations," Ohana said. "The students always rave about helpful he is."

Tom Venable, Cozier's principal, said Brand puts in far more hours than his part-time status might indicate.

"I've actually run into Rob in my building on a weekend," Venable said. "He just stopped by to check in."

From Brand's perspective, he's just doing what he loves to do. He considers teaching a challenging but rewarding profession, and says education students at Western take tougher classes, with higher expectations, than he went through early in his career.

Living up to his billing as humble, Brand was reluctant to be interviewed, but said he went along because students who want to become teachers deserve all the support they can get.

"This is not about me," he said. "This is about somebody who has the opportunity to become a teacher."

Contact Dean Kahn at dean.kahn@bellinghamherald.com or 715-2291.

TO DONATE

To donate to the Rob Brand Elementary Education Scholarship, call Michael Reinke, 650-2368.