to Welcome to Welcome
by Patricia Swan Smith
For the Pathfinder
October 3, 1996
Word travels fast in a small town. The murder of a wonderful grade school
teacher in this small town around 1:30 a.m. Monday reached Alaska by 3 a.m.
That call was followed by another call back to Seeley, and by 7 a.m., almost
everyone knew we had lost Cliff Nelson, a "hero" in most of our
eyes.
The news of the loss was followed by hundreds of identical comments such
as, "I keep thinking I'll just wake up and it won't be true. And then
I realize, I am awake. It's not a dream." "How could anyone kill
him of all people." and "Why? Why? No one could have a reason."
The devastation could be seen in the packed hallways of both the Seeley
Lake Grade School and the Seeley Swan High School from 8 a.m. till the halls
were emptied in the late afternoon. Teachers, parents and students--some
crying hard, some dazed from already crying for hours, and all with bewildered
looks and an emptiness that nothing could fill.
The 49-year-old grade school teacher, Cliff Nelson, had touched so many
people's lives over the past 20 years here, and it showed.
"Cliff was a great teacher," said John Hebnes, school superintendent.
"We are going to need a lot of help from the parents and the community.
We need to get somebody in his class, and we're going to need to help make
the transition with whoever it is."
Nelson taught 8th grade Language and Arts which included English and reading.
He taught Math and Social Studies to both the 7th and 8th grades. He was
the drama teacher. He coached boy's basketball, and this year Hebnes said
they "cornered" him into coaching girl's basketball. He started
and promoted Little League in Seeley.
He received the State of Montana Teacher Of The Year Award, the Montana
History Teachers Award, and the State and National Future Problem Solver
awards. He had two groups of kids win the State Future Problem Solver competition,
and they went on to the Nationals.
He was known for his kindness as he would take a car-load of kids into Missoula
to see a movie or a U of M game, pick up the dinner tab and deliver them
all back home safely. His home was open to groups of kids who wanted to
watch a video together, and made many holidays special by having parties
at his house for the whole class.
He was a single man and many have asked "Didn't he have a wife and
a family?" And as high school Senior Burma Ryan put it, "Yes he
had a family. He had four or five hundred children. Mrs. Davis was the mommie,
and Mr. Nelson was the dad."
Mrs. Davis, Kathy, a third grade teacher, was probably Cliff's best friend.
He started teaching at Seeley in 1975, and Kathy started a year after that.
And for the next twenty years, they were friends and teachers together.
"He gave his life to the school," Kathy Davis said. "There
was no other life for him. It was the end-all. He was a Christian man with
high morals.
"He treated everybody the same. He didn't judge people by the family
they came from, and he was fair. He taught the kids about life. He made
the whole class be together and touch things--the trips to Glacier, the
plays, the field trips. That's what brought his classes together. He made
them a team with the big hurrah.
"He spent everything on the kids. He bought books and dinners. He sent
a lot of kids he had taught who were in college $25.00 a month if he thought
they needed it. He never had any money. He never had anything. But he didn't
need anything. His students were his victories."
And Kathy is not alone with her sentiments. The teachers, the staff, the
students and the parents all tell the same story--Cliff Nelson loved his
job, and his kids.
"It's murdering the whole community in a way," said Lisa Currey,
a sophomore at Seeley Swan High. "And knowing Mr. Nelson, he would
probably try to help the person that did this to him. He was incredible.
Teaching was his whole life. He was a teacher--complete in every way.
"We'd tease him and he'd try to act like a grouch, but it never lasted.
"He had this old etiquette book from the 1920s. He'd get it out and
he'd try to read it completely straight faced and try not to smile, but
we always ended up laughing.
"I remember when we went to Glacier. The guys snuck in under our cabin,
and he snuck in with them. We opened the door, and there he was standing
in the dark. We were all his kids, and he related to kids.
"We had a Christmas party at his house. We played tag in the dark and
sang Christmas carols until the neighbors ran us off."
But what about school work?
"He'd push you," Currey said. "He really wanted us to accomplish
things. If we handed our work in late we were on the dreaded 'red list'.
You'd get on the red list, and you had to come in at lunch or after school
to get caught up. Math. We had to be completely correct on everything before
an assignment was finished. And he always encouraged us to read and write.
And he was fair.
"I expected him to always be there."
Lisa Currey's sister, Allison, had Mr. Nelson as a teacher this year. As
Lisa talked, Allison listened and said more than once, "I wish we could
have had him longer."
And Nelson wasn't the type of teacher you left at the end of the year. His
friendship and pride followed his students.
"My brother told my mom he wouldn't turn in an article he had written
until he re-did it because he knew Mr. Nelson wouldn't like it," said
Pat Morin a Senior at Seeley Swan High. "He stayed your friend forever."
Monday night, about 30 high school students met up at the Double Arrow Lookout
to talk about it. Each student would say something about Mr. Nelson, and
it was written down. This is what the senior class wrote after they gathered
their thoughts:
"We recall the summer after our sixth grade year, and the dread
we felt to be in Mr. Nelson's class. The "Red List," the Shakespearean
plays, the tough basketball coaching: All these things contributed to our
fears of entering junior-high. Fortunately for us, the following two years
were little of what we predicted and, more importantly, a lasting memory
of the new friendships and unity which could be accomplished when we put
our differences aside. Not only that, many of us established a lasting friendship
with Mr. Nelson which will never die.
"One of the most important things about Mr. Nelson was the fact that
he was always there for us. Whether it was in a junior-high class or years
later for some personal help with family problems, sports, conversation,
school work, or even just a place to watch a movie with friends. He made
everyone welcome by his generosity and endless hospitality. When we needed
something that nobody else could provide, such as a little league baseball
team, we went to him. To us, Mr. Nelson is not thought of as a teacher;
he is a friend.
"Mr. Nelson's teachings were much more personal than some people realize.
He always strived to bring out a lesson of "Life" in his teachings.
Many of us can remember his opening remark to occasional conversations or
letters: "How's Life?" This image will stick with us more than
any of the fundamental principals of Math or English. Mr. Nelson's primary
concern was to teach us about life.
To us, it seems like the perfect ending to one of his 50's or 60's plays
which seemed to end: "Little did we know, that our senior year would
begin like this."