BHS Physics Teachers, Past and Present
- Edward J. Den Adel
Mr. Den Adel came from Iowa City, Iowa to Bartlesville's Central High School in 1927. He primarily taught the junior college chemistry course, but also physics on occasion. Mr. Den Adel moved with the junior college to College High in 1939. He retired in 1961 with about forty years of teaching experience, 34 of them at Bartlesville as head of the science department.
Photos from 1949. - George R. Karch
Mr. Karch received his BA in physics at the State University of Iowa in 1926, and his Masters in Education from the University of Oklahoma in 1942. He first taught physics part-time at the State University of Iowa, for the grand sum of $400 for the year. He taught full-time for a year in Marion, Iowa before coming to Bartlesville for a "better job" which paid $1,500 per year. During his 30 years of teaching in Bartlesville his income rose to $5,000 per year. He taught physics and was the Director of Visual Education from 1928 to 1958, working at Central High School and then at College High.
He sponsored the first Reel Club in 1929 which operated for more than 25 years at Central and College High. Mr. Karch trained students in the care and use of audiovisual equipment, including his son Olin, who provided much of the information given here. During his tenure George Karch taught physics, general science, biology, electronics, electricity shop, and filmed all of the football games.
In 1958 he ran across an ad in an education magazine about a physics position at California State Polytechnic College in San Luis Obispo. He asked to be let out of his Bartlesville contract, and was told it would be approved if he could find a replacement. Mr. Karch went to Tulsa the next day and recruited a fresh graduate. The astonished school administrators held to their word, and Mr. Karch taught at Cal Poly for 11 years, retired, and substituted until he was 75. He was delighted to learn that it took five people to take over the duties that had been slowly piled onto him during his long tenure in Bartlesville. Mr. Karch passed away in San Luis Obispo in 1988.
Photos from 1949. - Donald Smith
Mr. Smith taught physics at College High from 1959 to 1961. He is probably teaching volume concepts in the photo.
- Oscar Johnson
Mr. Johnson was the physics teacher at Col-High from 1961 to 1962.
- Bill Noble
Mr. Noble taught physics at Col-High from 1963 to 1964.
- Keith Dotson
Mr. Dotson taught math and physics at College High from 1964 to 1967. The right photo shows the science department in 1967. Left of Keith Dotson are longtime teachers Quinton West and Jean Dean who taught biology and chemistry respectively. Standing next to Mr. Dotson is earth science teacher Ronald Stump. Dick Seaborn, leaning on the demo desk, would later teach physics at the school.
Photos from 1965 and 1967. - Goldia Crouch
Mrs. Goldia Crouch taught various Col-Hi science courses in the late 1960s, including physics in 1967-68. In the photo she is salting a frog held by Mr. West. Yum, yum!
Goldia, who was the sister of math teacher and "Voice of the Bruins" Gail Gay, died on December 29, 2002 in Norman, OK at 86 years of age.
- Dick Seaborn
Dick Seaborn was teaching at College High by 1967 and taught physics classes various years from 1969 until 1984. He poses with a high-frequency spark coil in the first photo and is seen adjusting a ripple tank in the second.
- Daryl Doughty
Daryl Doughty taught chemistry and physics at Col-Hi between 1971 and 1975. He was remembered for his quick wit and love for puns. The right photo shows him working with Guy Velgos and another student to safely observe a solar eclipse. Mr. Meador had Daryl's son Kyle as a student in the early 1990s, who reports that his father went on to work for the Department of Energy office in Bartlesville as a research physicist, and later returned to teaching physics at the Vinita branch of the Oklahoma School of Science and Math.
- Lynne Shaw
Lynne Shaw piloted Inquiry Physics at College High in 1985, a course based upon learning cycles developed at the University of Oklahoma. She taught that course for several consecutive years and then, after a hiatus from that course, she later taught some sections of it in 1993-94, 1994-95, and 1998-99 and 1999-2000. Lynne also piloted the Chemistry in the Community course, and taught Chemistry I for many years. She was the district science department chair from 1991 until 1993, and retired in May, 2000. Since her retirement, she has been known to substitute for Mr. Meador.
Photos from 1999 and 1988. - Monty Cunningham
Monty Cunningham was a Bartlesville High School physics teacher from 1987 until 1989, bringing to bear (or would it be bringing to the bears, since the students were now Bruins?) his experience as a military pilot. He returned to teaching in the 1990s at the Mid-High, usually teaching Physical Science.
- Granger Meador
Yours truly first taught Inquiry and Honors Physics at BHS in 1989-90. The next year I piloted AP Physics B and have taught it and Inquiry Physics ever since. (For detail enthusiasts, 2000-2001 was the only year in which I taught no Inquiry Physics classes.) I have served as the district science department chair from 1993-1996, 1999-Spring 2003, and Fall 2004-Present.
Photos from 1990 and 2004. - Robert Lee
Bob Lee came to Bartlesville High School in 1991 and taught AP Chemistry II until 1996-97. Through the years he also taught Chemistry I and ChemCom, and in 1991-92 and 1992-93 he taught some sections of Inquiry Physics. He and his wife left to go teach in the Phillipines in the summer of 1997.
- Steve Beavers
Steve Beavers taught Inquiry Physics and ChemCom at BHS in 2000-2001. He came from a long career in safety at Phillips Petroleum, and some teaching experience in the vo-tech STAR and landscape engineering programs.
- Leon Christensen
Dr. Leon Christensen was a PhD chemist at Phillips Petroleum and Provesta. Before coming to work at BHS, he taught math at Clinton Middle School and Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa. In addition to his chemistry classes, Dr. Christensen taught some sections of Inquiry Physics from Fall 2001 until Spring 2004. He left BHS in 2008.
- Sharon Hampton
In 2010-2011 Ms. Sharon Hampton came to BHS to teach Chemistry in the Community, Anatomy & Physiology, and one section of Inquiry Physics.