The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

Earl Armbruster, Rob Kurtz and Steve Summerfield, off to a Ducks game. Going to college football was a favorite pursuit of these avid fans. photo provided

Rob Kurtz was the kind of teacher who changed lives, the kind of teacher students remember long after they have left his classroom and moved on.

The impact that Rob Kurtz had on students in Sisters was evident by the number of former students who packed the Sisters High School auditorium on Tuesday, April 13, to remember the 54-year-old teacher who died the previous Monday morning after a brave two-year battle with cancer.

Kurtz inspired his colleagues, too.

"Robbie was the kind of person who had a real magnetic, joyful way of inviting you in," said Sisters Middle School counselor Steve Summerfield, who was friends with Kurtz all the way back to their early years of teaching in the late 1970s.

Words like "integrity" and "intellect" -- even "brilliance" crop up in Summerfield's recollections of his friend.

But they are uncomfortable words to use, because, as Summerfield is quick to say, Kurtz was a team player and never sought accolades or the spotlight.

"He had a really sharp intellect that most of us admired, yet he was very humble about it," Summerfield said.

The most striking quality that Kurtz brought to his social studies classroom was an ability to reach and inspire students of all ages and ability levels.

Kurtz started his career as a special education teacher and he taught social studies and math at several different grade levels -- managing to connect with his students at every turn.

Inspiration is a hard quality to define and impossible to quantify. Yet it was apparent to everyone.

"Kids loved his class," Summerfield said. "He inspired them. He could somehow connect with a child and make that child believe in himself. A lot of us work at it. He had a natural gift."

Rob's wife Linda thinks that the key to his success in the classroom was a simple one: "I think he genuinely liked kids and was comfortable around them."

The desire to be in the classroom kept him going after he was diagnosed with a deadly throat cancer two years ago. He worked when he was undergoing chemotherapy and, right until the end, he hoped to return to the job.

"Rob was an optimistic person -- very much the glass was half full, not half empty," his wife said. "I don't think ever was he unrealistic about probable outcome (of his diagnosis), but I think we deliberately chose to focus on the possibility of periods of remission."

And, Linda, said, he got one last summer -- "and he crammed a lot into it."

For Summerfield, that love of life was part of what made Kurtz a great teacher and a great friend.

"He loved to dance, he loved to play, he had a passion for teaching and he loved kids," Summerfield said. "His ability to work hard and play hard just made him a darn good guy to be around."

Kurtz's final struggle with his cancer brought an outpouring of support for his family from community members -- support for which Linda Kurtz is extremely grateful.

She thanked the Sisters community and especially the students -- current and from past years -- who sent cards and emails.

"Those meant a lot," she said.

As a tribute to Kurtz and a remembrance for his family, the Sisters Middle School staff asks that anyone who ever had Rob Kurtz as a teacher or had children in his class honor him by taking the time to write a few words about how he affected their lives.

Anything written will do -- a card, a letter, a poem. There will be a drop-off box in the middle school office to collect writings, which will be bound in an album for Kurtz's family to keep.

For more information contact Midge Rose or Steve Summerfield at 549-2099.