Photo by Danny Fulgencio.
After 11 years leading Lake Highlands High School, former principal Bob Iden thought he’d reinvent himself as a real estate agent in 2008. But the housing market crashed, and he missed the camaraderie of the school system. Now Iden, who grew up in the neighborhood, is a coach and college career advisor at Bishop Lynch High School.
What are your favorite memories during your tenure as teacher, coach or principal?
Winning the state championship in 1981 was huge. That was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me and all the other coaches. We talked about how that group of kids from Forest Meadow Junior High and Lake Highlands Junior High were just a tour de force. When I was principal, I think the national recognitions we got, like the Blue Ribbon School, AVID National Demonstration School. We were listed as one of the top high schools in the country by U.S. News and World Report.
If you were in another field, what would it be?
I can’t imagine myself doing anything else. I tried. I had the real estate venture. I think if I could retire today and do something else, it would be to work with my wife [at Balfour Publishing] in the yearbook, cap and gown and graduation ring business.
What’s one thing that most people don’t know about you?
Probably my indirect connection to Shakespeare. One of my ancestors, Alexander Iden, was a noble. This is in “King Henry the XI, Part II” one of Shakespeare’s lesser plays. Alexander Iden slayed the rebel Jack Cade, and he was knighted for it. A guy named by Ben Iden Payne was a famous Shakespearean professor at the University of Texas. There’s a theater named after him.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
