Moniteau teacher retires after 46 years
CHERRY TWP — For the past 46 years, Moniteau High School biology teacher Bob Heck has taught thousands of students, organized dozens of dissection labs and worn countless over-the-top neckties.
Heck, 70, a Butler native and Moniteau fixture, retires next month. With biology and teaching as his passions, the job was perfectly suited for him. But he didn't always have teaching aspirations.
“I started out in dentistry,” Heck said. “I graduated from Grove City College in pre-dental and decided very early on that I really didn't want to go to dental school. And back in 1966, jobs for teaching were available everywhere because there was a shortage of teachers.”
He quickly landed a position in the Fox Chapel School District — without any teaching experience or certification.
“My first job was basically, they walked me into a classroom and said, 'Well, here's the class. How about watching it?' I said, 'Well, when do you want me to do this?' And they said, 'Well, today. We don't have a sub.'
“I said, 'I can't. I don't know how to teach.' 'Oh, you'll figure it out,' and they handed me a book. So then I started teaching,” Heck said.
He eventually received proper teaching certifications and a bachelor's degree in biology. Three years later, in 1969, he began teaching at Moniteau High School.
“Moniteau has improved tremendously. We have these wonderful labs, we have exhaust fans, we have mini sinks, we have electrical outlets. When I came to Moniteau, I had one sink, no exhaust fan,” Heck said.
Decades later, his students still enjoy Heck's passion for biology, the snacks he sometimes shares in class and his catchphrases.
“Sadness,” “You bet your bippie” and “Wassup?” are among his many sayings during class.
He's also known for often wearing eccentric neckties, depicting patterns that vary from rubber duckies to DNA helixes.
In fact, teachers have pictures hung in the hallways of the school in their honor when they retire. Heck's picture is a partial collection of his neckties, more than 50 of them, perfectly assembled in a circle.But what he'll be remembered for best is his knowledge of biology.“He knows everything,” said Madison Unverzagt, 18, one of his advanced placement biology students, who plans to study nursing after she graduates next month. “He has his lectures memorized.”Heck enjoys teaching hands-on lessons more than anything else.“The best lessons, I believe, are hands-on lessons, and not straight memorization,” he said.Students enrolled in Advanced Biology, which is an anatomy- and physiology-focused class, dissect a cat each year. Shark dissections were once an annual ritual too, but were discontinued a few years ago because of time constraints with required testing.“The cat dissection is something you'll never forget,” said Athena Richardson, 17. “More like the smell is something you'll never forget.”She's not the only one that recalls the dissection. Several teachers and administrators at Moniteau High School also once had Heck when they were students.Susan Grossman, the school librarian, had Mr. Heck for Biology I, Biology II and Ecology in the 1970s. She graduated from Moniteau in 1979.“We still had to dissect a cat. That was probably the worst thing that I remember,” she said, laughing. “My lab partner was this big, husky football player, who claimed he could never find gloves big enough to fit his hands. So I had to do all of the cutting. What a lousy excuse.”
Grossman said Heck was her favorite teacher in high school because he made learning fun. It seems that he hasn't changed much, since he was known for his puns and his snacks back then, too.“We would dissect the sheep eyeball. He'd hold up the jar of sheep eyeballs and said, 'I'll keep an eye out for you,'” Grossman said. “People would bring in food and we would have snacks, but he called them digestive seminars to make them sound a little bit more scientific.”Other things went on back then that aren't classroom tradition now.“You never knew what you might find in his refrigerator back in those days. People would bring in dead things along the road for him to identify,” Grossman said.“I don't think there was ever such a thing as a boring day in Mr. Heck's class,” said John Stoughton, Moniteau's athletic and transportation director who graduated from high school in 2008. “There was always something to cut open or something that stunk, something in a jar.“You could tell that he cared so much. I think that was just one of the main reasons that we were all so interested and willing to learn. Just because how adamant he was about teaching the curriculum.”Wendy Taylor, a special-education teacher who graduated from Moniteau in 1997, said his classes catered to everyone, not just those interested in entering science-based careers.“I was not into science, but he had a way of making it enjoyable,” she said.Most of his current and former students have parents, uncles, cousins and children who also have had him in class.Taylor's father, uncles and cousins had him. Stoughton's mother and stepfather had him in class. Most of Grossman's five brothers and sisters and her daughter, a 2007 graduate, had him as a teacher.
Heck said he's stayed for as long as he has because he enjoys working with young people and helping them. He doesn't keep in touch with students, but often runs into them while he's out and about. Voices never change, but looks and last names sometimes do, he said.“One of the toughest cognitive jobs is to put a name on a face. And their faces don't look the same,” he said. “It's sort of fun trying to guess who they are because if you see them only a year in school, and then 30 years later, you see them again. That's a toughie.”Nicole Auvil, another of his AP Biology students, said her parents, aunts and uncles all had him when they attended Moniteau. She plans to study medical imaging after graduating.“Everyone knows you,” she told Heck during class. “It's going to be different when you're not here.”Heck plans on spending more time with his family and grandchildren, who live out of state.
