Along with the many seniors leaving Lakeland High School in June, a beloved teacher will also be exiting the halls and retiring alongside the graduates.
Mr. Steve Seymour will be finishing up on his 36 years of teaching as he sets off.
Throughout these thirty one years Seymour has been a well respected and appreciated teacher as well as coach at Lakeland high school.
“As a student, English classes intimidated me. I guess I wanted to see if I could make high school English more enjoyable,” Seymour said, and he has certainly been able to witness that happen.
It is without a doubt that Seymour is such a joyful teacher to have. It feels so low-pressure to be in his classes as he is constantly making quick remarks and truly spending more of the class talking about his day than what the homework will be.
“I think the moment I realized I could do this job was when I created a successful lesson plan and I was able to make the class laugh,” Seymour said.
Word carries fast around the halls of Lakeland about Seymour and he swiftly becomes one of the teachers everyone is hoping to have and even after students leave Seymour continues to hold a fondness in their heart.
“His former students and athletes continue to keep in contact with him. Because of the connections he made with them while they were his student and or one of his athletes, he is continually contacted for references, invited to weddings or just reached out to in order to check in with him,” Deana Lange, a teacher at Lakeland and close friend of Seymour, said.
Without having him as a teacher you may be more familiar with his dryness and at times overwhelming monotone voice but the second you step foot in his class that is all proven to be far from true, or at least just the surface.
“His personality can be described as “unique” at best! When I first met him I was not sure what to think but it wasn’t too long until I realized what a funny, kind hearted person he is,” Lange said.
“I hope one day to be as transcendental and kind as him,” Leeann Lohf said.
Every class of Seymours starts (somedays right as the bell rings, other days roughly 20 minutes after the bell) with his attendance questions which can range anywhere from “what did you have for dinner” all the way to “what’s something you want to change in the world” and you never really know how profound he’s going to be until he pulls up his agenda slide.
It wasn’t necessarily always in the cards for Seymour to become an English teacher however.
“My high school teachers and I would have agreed that a Mr. Seymour, English teacher, was a very bad career path. It was not an easy process for me. I did not graduate at the top of my class academically. Sometimes I would struggle with the same subject matter that I was supposed to explain to students the next day,” Seymour said.
Not only has Seymour maintained the title of “favorite teacher” for many, he also ranks high as a coach.
Seymour has been a coach for numerous sports alongside his teaching career. For three years he was an assistant football coach, he was an assistant track coach for 25 years, he coached j.v. boys basketball for a year, and most notably for 27 years he was the head girls basketball coach.
“Our time coaching together had numerous memories, highlights of course being the back to back state titles we won in girls basketball. I guess as a whole I would just say my favorite memory is that we worked really hard for a lot of years to build a well respected and successful high school program, all under his direction . . . while coaching with him for all those years, he was extremely humble and never wanted any praise directed at him, he wanted it all to go to the players. When things went wrong, he would take the blame in order to shelter his teams from any negatives. That speaks volumes for the type of person he is and the biggest reason I respect him as much as I do,” Lange said.
Through the years Seymour has made countless impacts on students from simply helping them out with a hard essay to being the person they confide in.
“I had some incredible teachers and professors in college. Some continued to be friends years after I graduated. They believed in me and believed I would make a good teacher,” Seymour said.
Students learn rather fast that Seymour is an incredible conversationalist
“I’ve become that teacher who is willingly led astray by student questions about food, fishing, and transcendentalism,” he said.
It is nearly impossible to be alone with him and not talk to him in some way.
“He let me stay in his classroom during my free period, and I loved getting to talk to him about everything from literature to food to politics. He’s a really smart guy with a lot of interesting things to say, and he has a valuable perspective on life,” former student Sarah Smith said. “More than anything though he’s a fisherman,”
A more true statement couldn’t be made.
Seymour has a lot of character traits that shine through and they all make up his personality but his love for fly fishing persists the most.
“Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he’s Mr. Seymour,” Smith said.
I don’t think a single class period of his has passed without the mention of him fishing. It shines in his class decor, his personality, and his lessons. He has a love for fishing like no other and visibly wants nothing more than to share that love with his students.
Earlier in the year Seymour taught his Senior class how to cast a fly fishing rod alongside teaching A River Runs Through It, a book all about family and of course fly fishing. With this lesson the most memorable thing was the utmost joy on Seymours face as he described the skill needed to cast the rod and the joy of sharing his hobby with these students he holds so dear.
“The students are my favorite thing about Lakeland . . . I get to know one hundred twenty or so new students every year. Hopefully, they also get to know me,” Seymour said.
It is an undeniable fact that Lakeland will have big shoes to fill once Seymour is gone. It will be difficult to find a teacher with the same joy, passion, and whimsy as Steve Seymour.
“Not only does he teach the subject, but he teaches morals too. He opens our eyes to the questions of the world . . . every time somebody talks with their hands or gazes outside the window, I am reminded of him,” Lohf said.
“I feel sorry for the students that will never have a chance to have him as a teacher and will miss having him around,” Lange said.
There is not another teacher out there who can make it as fun to learn otherwise boring literature, who can take away the dread of an essay, or who can make kids want to come to English class the same way Seymour makes them.
“Shortly after deciding I liked teaching, I also decided I would like to be a retired teacher . . . I want to read and write more. I’m a grandfather with a grandson who has yet to hear of Emerson and Thoreau. I hope to lose more flies to large cutthroat trout and errant golf balls to fairway ponds and the deep woods beyond the o.b. Stakes,” Seymour said.
There will be a palpable emptiness in the halls as the next school year rolls around but it will be coupled with the joy of knowing that somewhere on a golf course or lake Seymour is there enjoying his day off.
It can be rest assured however that teaching will always be a part of Seymour’s life.
“I am haunted by teaching.”
