Pat Paske was 72 years old when he died of a heart attack on Tuesday. 

Some wondered why Paske worked for as long as he did and did not retire even though he had that option. But after speaking with several people, I came to the conclusion that it was because he cared about the students.

“He really cared about students as people, not just as, you know, students,” teacher Ed Belsan said.

As someone who took one of Paske’s classes, this is true. 

I took his class sophomore year and he genuinely cared about what I and many others had to say. He always asked about my day and how my sports were going. 

Even years later, whenever I saw him in the hall he would stop and talk to me. He was a great listener and also very caring.

“He was very friendly, very outgoing, and very funny. He almost always had a joke, story or anecdote,” Belsan said.

Teacher Sara Wilson added: “He could talk to anyone… And it was like this endearing quality about him. He was super friendly. And one of the things that I think has come out about him this week that I’ve heard a lot of people say is that when you told him something, he remembered it. And then he would ask you about that when he saw you because he wanted to make connections with people. So he was just somebody that relationships are really important too.”

Wilson admired Paske’s experience.

“He had 51 years in public education,” she said. “So there wasn’t hardly ever a situation that he hadn’t dealt with. If you were dealing with something with parents or an IEP or other issues like that, he always was somebody that you could ask for advice on those kinds of things because he had done it all.”