MUKILTEO — Kirk Kaas left behind a high-paying business career to teach kindergartners.
The accomplished distance runner once gave away his Boston Marathon medal to a first-grader to impress upon his students the importance of perseverance in earning an education.
In faculty gatherings at Columbia Elementary School, he asked hard questions of himself and fellow teachers.
His concern for children was evident every day, said Wendy Eidbo, principal of the Mukilteo school where Kaas taught until his death of an apparent heart attack Dec. 6. He was 56. “He really cared about kids as people and really saw a well-rounded education as being really important to their lives,” Eidbo said.
Eidbo hired Kaas in part because she believed he realized school is about more than academics. It also is about relationships.
Eidbo remembers a conversation she had with Kaas a year ago.
“He told me, ‘I didn’t realize how difficult teaching is,’ ” Eidbo recounted.
“He felt it was hard to reach everyone,” the principal said. “When he told me that, I assured him he was reaching every child every day. And he was.”
Last week was a difficult time for the school.
Grief counselors visited with students and teachers. Phone calls were made to parents of the teacher’s current and former students. Sixth-graders now in middle school returned to share memories about how Mr. Kaas affected their lives.
He was remembered as a teacher who would stop in mid-lesson if a child had a question that veered off the topic, a teacher who always found a reason to get his students outside, even to rehearse a play about the Constitution.
Mainly, he was remembered as a teacher who tried to convince his students they could make a difference in the world.
Shelley Syreen worked closely with Kaas in recent years, initially as first-grade teachers in neighboring classrooms.
“I remember when I first saw Mr. Kaas, this scruffy-looking old guy and I thought, ‘This could be interesting.’ ”
It was, indeed.
That first year, Kaas would stop by her class to chat and they experimented with team teaching. This was their fourth year together and they shared 54 fifth-grade students.
“A day didn’t go by without debating something,” she said. “He made me think even when I didn’t want to, and I still looked forward to seeing him every single day.”
Syreen taught reading and writing; Kaas, math, science and other subjects.
His influence reached far beyond the academic lessons he taught and into the characters he developed.
“He cared so deeply about our students,” Syreen said. “It meant the world to him just to hear his students cared, cared about living thoughtfully and learning and loving each other.”
“Our personalities were the complete opposites, but the combination just worked,” Syreen said. “I will never be the teacher we were together.”
Besides a treasured colleague, Syreen lost a good friend.
Kaas showed enormous patience and understanding when she was facing the challenges that can come with raising an autistic son. As marketing director for the 15,000-member International Society for Optical Engineering, he spent years delving into the realm of science, engineering and cutting-edge technology.
He made a good living, and he saw the world.
In the fall of 2001, at the age of 48, Kaas walked away from that comfortable profession for the classroom.
Kaas went back to kindergarten as a first-year teacher at Presidents Elementary School in Arlington. With no regrets — “zero, absolutely none,” he said at the time, he left the world of medical imaging, laser chips and fiber optics for the alphabet, glue sticks and Crayolas.
Kaas later took a first-grade teaching position at Columbia.
Kaas frequently would tell his students he had two hopes for them: that they would be kind and they would graduate from high school.
At the end of the 2007 school year, Kaas, a marathon runner, tried to emphasize the importance of hard work over the long haul to first-graders as they pursued their education in the years ahead.
The teacher and his family gave away medals they earned in grueling long-distance foot races and swim meets.
“We want to give them to the kids in hopes of it being a real heartfelt message about perseverance,” Kaas said at the time.
In marathon running, it’s not necessarily where you finish, but that you finish, and that message is appropriate in education, he said.
His Boston Marathon medal went home with a first-grader that day and he said he couldn’t be happier about it.
School officials said people can remember Kaas by making donations of nonperishable food, cash or checks to the Mukilteo Food Bank in his honor.
A memorial to celebrate Kaas’s life is set for 4 p.m. Wednesday in the Columbia Elementary School gym, 10520 Harbour Pointe Blvd., Mukilteo.
In keeping with Kaas’ favorite wardrobe, people are encouraged to wear a tie-dye or Hawaiian shirt and bring a special story and song to share in an open-microphone-style celebration.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
