Steve Ewing has been named Woodrow Wilson High School’s new principal, and Kyle Richardson, who led the school for five years, officially began his retirement yesterday.
“I haven’t even thought about what to do in retirement,” Richardson told us a few weeks ago.
But he and two other Woodrow retirees will figure it out soon enough. Between them — Richardson, art teacher Demetri Cotton, and hospitality teacher and golf coach Tom Crabb — Woodrow loses 82 years of teaching experience and three men who helped shape Woodrow into the school it is today.
Richardson’s 35 years in Dallas ISD were spent as a teacher and coach at Pinkston High School for several years before becoming an assistant principal at several schools. He also led Kramer Elementary for eight years and Marsh Middle School for six years before heading to Woodrow. While at Marsh, he turned around what had been a troubled campus, and he is what Woodrow’s feeder pattern executive director Tracie Fraley calls, “the best Principal in Dallas ISD.”
Crabb will
continue to be involved and volunteer with activities at Woodrow WilsonCrabb, who worked in sales and with a travel agency for 25 years, began his second career teaching at Woodrow in 1999 when he was recruited by a fellow teacher while watching a Woodrow softball game. It felt like coming home, as Crabb graduated from Woodrow in 1971, just as his father had in 1939. His three daughters all graduated from Woodrow during his tenure, and Crabb also coached girls’ basketball, track and golf during his 17 years. He says he’s done it all at Woodrow, and “I knew it was time to retire when students started telling me I reminded them of their grandfather instead of their father.”
Cotton’s affable nature and cool demeanor made him a favorite at Woodrow, and his 30 years in the same classroom are a testament to his service and dedication to the students of East Dallas. Cotton discovered Woodrow when he visited the school as a recruiter for East Texas State University (now Texas A&M Commerce) and began teaching at Woodrow when he his then girlfriend (now wife) moved back to Dallas. His mother and father were both high school math teachers, and on his mother’s recommendation, he earned a teaching certificate and began to put his art major to use.
Richardson jokes that the things he is most proud of at Woodrow are the things with which he had the littlest to do. The musical, sports programs, the establishment of the academies, the IB program and engineering all stand out to him. He is proud of moving Woodrow to its highest ever graduation rate and creating a college-going culture at the school.
While Richardson is proud of the staff he has assembled, “The best thing about the school is the kids, who were great from day one.” He says he always enjoyed “the spirit and energy of the kids when they were all together.”
Cotton’s fondest memories are of art students of his who have gone on to have works hung in Washington, D.C., the Texas State Capitol and the Dallas ISD administration building Downtown. He says that students know much more about art than he did when he was in high school, and enjoys teaching about the history and principles of art in addition to just creating art.
Crabb noted the “Spirit of Woodrow” as something that he will always remember. He feels that the pride people have when they graduate and their support for their school isn’t something that occurs in many other schools.
When he attended Woodrow, there was one principal and one assistant principal, and receiving licks from a paddle was not uncommon. There wasn’t air-conditioning, it cost 15 cents a day to park in the student parking lot, “and you had to have exact change,” he says. Crabb has seen the demographics of the school change since his days as a student, but he says “despite different generations, students still develop the heart of the wildcat.” Cotton echoes that sentiment, saying, “Woodrow was always a special place, uniquely different, and a haven for great students.”
Crabb will continue to volunteer with activities at Woodrow, and Richardson will continue to be involved with schools in the area as a consultant role. “You can’t buy experience,” he says, and he is happy to stay attached the community. He imagines he will travel some with his wife, who is a retired teacher after 34 years in the classroom herself. Cotton will use his time to continue to pastor his church in Pleasant Grove and says he will take time to “explore my own art, to fulfill whatever that means in life and to make whatever mark I can in the art world.” His showing at the Bank of America building on Zang in Oak Cliff started June 18.
Crabb, in his classroom at the end of the school year, surrounded by mountains of student work that testify to his involvement, expressed a feeling that is shared by all three retirees:
“A career is something you want to do, a job is something you have to do. I felt like my time at Woodrow has been a career every day. Don’t ever do anything that you don’t enjoy. Work where your passion is.”
Full disclosure: Will Maddox, author of this story, serenaded the three men at a retirement celebration with a Justin Bieber rewrite.
