Published: Sunday, June 20, 2010
Voice of authority at Snohomish school retires
-
Butch Mesman is retiring after a long career as a security officer at Snohomish High School.
Pictures covered the walls of Butch Mesman’s office at Snohomish High School. For years, students gave him senior portraits and prom photos. They shared their smiles.
Mesman, 62, isn’t a teacher or coach. He retired this spring after 18 years at the school as a campus security guard.
His daughter Jamie Mesman-Davis has another label for her dad. “Butch Mesman is the big man on campus,” said Mesman-Davis, a teacher at Glacier Peak High School. “Everyone knows and cares for Butch.”
Mesman and his wife raised four daughters, Rhonda, Brandi, Misty and Jamie. Shirley Mesman said her husband took his fatherly manner to school each day. “He really does have hundreds of kids,” she said.
“He saw himself not as a security guard — he was part of the education process,” said Steve Cotterill, the Snohomish School District’s director of career and technical education.
At his Snohomish area home, Mesman said Wednesday that his job entailed trouble-shooting and more.
He once caught an intruder in the parking lot breaking into cars with a tire iron, and trapped him by locking a gate. Along with administrators and a school resource officer, he kept an eye out for knives, guns and drugs.
More often, Mesman was a fair and fatherly presence.
He lent an ear to kids who just needed to talk. “I took that as part of the job,” Mesman said. “You can’t answer all the questions, but the big thing is to treat them with respect.”
Mesman defused problems, Cotterill said. “I think that’s how he approached most things — you can be a father first, before being a security guard,” Cotterill said. “I don’t think he treated students any different than he treated his own family.”
Snohomish High School Principal Beth Porter saw his caring way with kids. “What really impressed me about Butch was the way he built such positive relationships with students,” she said.
Snohomish High was more than a workplace. A 1967 graduate of the school, Mesman played football for the Panthers’ legendary Coach Dick Armstrong. “He’s about as old-time Snohomish as there is,” Cotterill said.
Principal Porter said Mesman was there on her first full tour of the school nine years ago.
Rather than simply pointing out the B Building, he’d stop at each location and tell great old stories. “It was a wonderful way to learn this campus,” Porter said.
After graduation, Mesman served in the Army in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969. He worked for Loth Lumber, but was severely injured in a car accident. He took a part-time job at Snohomish High, working in a warehouse, and his alma mater suited him. For a time, he also taught driver’s education at Snohomish High. Shirley Mesman was part of the school staff, too, working for years in audio-visual resources.
Pranks were part of the landscape. Once Mesman came to school to find the shell of an old Volkswagen on a roof. The costume head of the Panther mascot was routinely stolen, and secretly returned.
Porter saw Mesman’s authority in action when construction kept the school bell from being heard in the cafeteria. “At the end of lunch, he would always come in and say ‘Let’s go, people!’ in this amazing, booming voice. Kids would get up and start moving,” she said. One day, he wasn’t there. The principal said her own “Let’s go people, please,” didn’t have the same effect.
“He was in charge without being threatening,” Cotterill said. “I will miss him a lot around here.”
Mesman had hip surgery, and later injured it in a fall. In retirement he plans to have hip replacement surgery and travel.
Brandi Torkelson, another of Mesman’s daughters, said that when she visits Snohomish from her Spokane area home, she’s amazed at the number of kids and former students who greet her father.
“It’s so fun to see how many lives he’s touched,” Torkelson said. “As Butch’s daughters, we’re very glad to share our dad. It’s an honor.”
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
Mesman, 62, isn’t a teacher or coach. He retired this spring after 18 years at the school as a campus security guard.
His daughter Jamie Mesman-Davis has another label for her dad. “Butch Mesman is the big man on campus,” said Mesman-Davis, a teacher at Glacier Peak High School. “Everyone knows and cares for Butch.”
Mesman and his wife raised four daughters, Rhonda, Brandi, Misty and Jamie. Shirley Mesman said her husband took his fatherly manner to school each day. “He really does have hundreds of kids,” she said.
“He saw himself not as a security guard — he was part of the education process,” said Steve Cotterill, the Snohomish School District’s director of career and technical education.
At his Snohomish area home, Mesman said Wednesday that his job entailed trouble-shooting and more.
He once caught an intruder in the parking lot breaking into cars with a tire iron, and trapped him by locking a gate. Along with administrators and a school resource officer, he kept an eye out for knives, guns and drugs.
More often, Mesman was a fair and fatherly presence.
He lent an ear to kids who just needed to talk. “I took that as part of the job,” Mesman said. “You can’t answer all the questions, but the big thing is to treat them with respect.”
Mesman defused problems, Cotterill said. “I think that’s how he approached most things — you can be a father first, before being a security guard,” Cotterill said. “I don’t think he treated students any different than he treated his own family.”
Snohomish High School Principal Beth Porter saw his caring way with kids. “What really impressed me about Butch was the way he built such positive relationships with students,” she said.
Snohomish High was more than a workplace. A 1967 graduate of the school, Mesman played football for the Panthers’ legendary Coach Dick Armstrong. “He’s about as old-time Snohomish as there is,” Cotterill said.
Principal Porter said Mesman was there on her first full tour of the school nine years ago.
Rather than simply pointing out the B Building, he’d stop at each location and tell great old stories. “It was a wonderful way to learn this campus,” Porter said.
After graduation, Mesman served in the Army in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969. He worked for Loth Lumber, but was severely injured in a car accident. He took a part-time job at Snohomish High, working in a warehouse, and his alma mater suited him. For a time, he also taught driver’s education at Snohomish High. Shirley Mesman was part of the school staff, too, working for years in audio-visual resources.
Pranks were part of the landscape. Once Mesman came to school to find the shell of an old Volkswagen on a roof. The costume head of the Panther mascot was routinely stolen, and secretly returned.
Porter saw Mesman’s authority in action when construction kept the school bell from being heard in the cafeteria. “At the end of lunch, he would always come in and say ‘Let’s go, people!’ in this amazing, booming voice. Kids would get up and start moving,” she said. One day, he wasn’t there. The principal said her own “Let’s go people, please,” didn’t have the same effect.
“He was in charge without being threatening,” Cotterill said. “I will miss him a lot around here.”
Mesman had hip surgery, and later injured it in a fall. In retirement he plans to have hip replacement surgery and travel.
Brandi Torkelson, another of Mesman’s daughters, said that when she visits Snohomish from her Spokane area home, she’s amazed at the number of kids and former students who greet her father.
“It’s so fun to see how many lives he’s touched,” Torkelson said. “As Butch’s daughters, we’re very glad to share our dad. It’s an honor.”
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
Comments
(
