It’s common for many administrators to move from school to school in Rocky View. That makes Dale Hobbs the odd man out. He has spent the last 28 years at George McDougall High School working as both a teacher and vice principal. He announced his retirement in June.
The Rocky Mountain House native began teaching at Airdrie Elementary Junior High School before accepting a job at George McDougall and never looked back or thought about offers from other schools.
“It’s an anomaly certainly,” he said. “When you’re at the best school already, why would you change?” said Hobbs.
He studied at the University of Calgary, earning a bachelor’s of science and later heading back to study education to become a teacher.
He and his wife Mary, also an educator, moved to Airdrie in 1986 and raised their three children.
A fixture in the community, Hobbs said he loves seeing the children his wife taught come through the high school and grow up in front of him.
“You see all those people come through and that’s really the big thing — all the students and their parents and people you get to know in the community,” said Hobbs.
Co-workers of Hobbs had nothing but praise for the outgoing administrator.
“There are guys you respect because they don’t pretend to be more than they are and that’s Dale,” said RVS Trustee Don Thomas.
“He’s salt of the earth.”
Thomas served as principal for 13 years, working with Hobbs from 1988 until 2001 and said he was a “mastermind” with creating time tables and helped adopt a 10-20-30 method to science courses during the early ‘90s.
“Other schools couldn’t do it or couldn’t get around to it, but Dale showed them how,” said Thomas.
Hobbs also worked with Trustee Sylvia Eggerer who called him the “backbone” of George McDougall.
“Everything that happened in that school had his touch,” said Eggerer.
These days, Hobbs sees his school populated with the children of former students and said he’s glad to see the community with a strong character.
Over the years, children’s lives have changed with media and social norms making kids feel they have to act differently and it’s a great pressure on their shoulders, he added.
When he began as a science and math teacher at George McDougall, the most students never had part-time jobs, focusing more on their studies.
Times have changed.
“You see a lot more students at this level working and have part-time jobs,” said Hobbs.
“They’re trying to juggle a job, school, sports and trying to make all that happen for them.”
With a need for higher averages and marks along with a growing expectation to attend some sort of post secondary institution, Hobbs applauds students for rising to the challenge.
“We are very fortunate to live in the place that we do,” said Hobbs.
“Here in Airdrie, the province, the country, the opportunities are huge and we’re just beginning to realize the potential of this country. They’re going to be a big part of making that whole thing a reality. They need to seize the challenges that are there.”
