FALMOUTH, Maine — D.W. Lunt Elementary School second-grade teacher Kevin Grover, a former Maine Teacher of the Year, died Thanksgiving Day, according to a state Department of Education official.
Grover, 40, taught for 15 years, the last 10 at Lunt, and was the 2010 Maine Teacher of the Year. Department of Education spokesman David Connerty-Marin said Grover collapsed after returning home from a run.
Grover made service-learning a regular part of his students’ school experience, taking them regularly to participate in community service, Gloria Noyes, president of Maine’s Teacher of the Year Association and mentor to Grover the year he won, said Friday.
“Kevin is going to be greatly missed,” Noyes said. “He was someone that was highly regarded in the world of education and left an impact on all of us. It’s a great loss for education and educators in Maine. He made a mark on all his students’ lives.”
Noyes said Grover was a key element in building and inspiring teachers through the Teacher of the Year Association. He started a Speaker’s Bureau within the association, which brought together past recipients of the award to speak at businesses or schools about their expertise, she said.
At Lunt, Grover was a leader in technology and always willing to help inspire other teachers to use it, Noyes said.
“He was a brilliant guy and very creative; he was excellent with technology” she said. “Staff would always go to Kevin for instruction and enhancement of their skills.”
Grover grew up in Greene and graduated from St. Dominic Regional High School in Auburn. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maine at Farmington and a master’s degree from the University of Southern Maine.
From 1996 through 2001, Grover taught first and second grades at Lake Street School in Auburn before moving to Lunt School.
Grover and his wife Rebecca have two young children. A telephone call to their home in Falmouth on Friday afternoon was not answered.
Neither Falmouth Superintendent of Schools Barbara Powers nor Lunt Elementary School Principal Karen Boffa could be reached for comment.
This is so sad! I met him last fall when he and a few other Maine Teacher of the Year winners came to speak to our class at the University of Maine at Farmington, and he gave me so many wonderful ideas for my future classroom. He will be sorely missed in the teaching community. Rest in Peace Mr. Grover!
oh man,, that’s a sad thing, that and all the accidents sure make ya think how short life can be.. rest in peace folks.. very sad..
Grover and his wife Rebecca have two young children. A telephone call to
their home in Falmouth on Friday afternoon was not answered.
OF course their not going to answer their phone….. Let the family grieve for god sakes and..BDN STOP calling people who JUST go through tragic events.
You missed this important part: By Will Graff, The Forecaster
So nobody from the BDN made a phone call.
Actually, when you hover your cursor over Will’s name at the top, it show’s an address of bangordailynews/author/wgraff. Given that, it appears to me that he is acting as an employee of the BDN, with their permission. I’d say Matt is right.
http://www.theforecaster.net/news/print/2012/11/23/recent-maine-teacher-year-dies-thanksgiving-day-fa/143358
That is the original article which has nothing to do with the BDN which means nobody from the BDN made a phone call. The story is simply reprinted here.
Thank you so much for explaining the concept of “reprinting,” since I had never heard about it before your explanation (sarcasm intended).
I think you’re missing Matt’s point. BDN chooses to print Mr. Graff’s articles AS NEWS approximately once per week. As far as many of us are concerned, if the BDN is printing it, then they own it.
Mr. Graff and other journalists (some do) should know better than to ring the phone of a grieving wife and two young children only the day after the death of their husband and father, simply to get the excited utterance they are hoping for. Get it?
I never said it was the proper thing to do. I simply stated that nobody from the BDN called the family. Get it?
Wow. Even independent of the whole ToY bit, this is just really sad.
40 y/o, young family, seemingly healthy. Just goes to show that you have to treat every day like it could be your last.
This is why I have a hard time believing that there is a so called god out there, if there really was why would he/she take this amazing individual at such an early age.
It appears that he accomplished so much in his time as a teacher and I would be willing to bet that he had many more great ideas to share.
I am so sorry for this young mans family and hope they can find some peace during this tough time.
Just know that your loved one was much appreciated during his life and will be continually remembered by those he inspired and those he was involved with.
While I never met him he sounds like an incredible individual and I wish there were more people like him.
I agree with you… god is horrible if he lets things like this happen. I am a former student and will forever remember him. He truly was an amazing teacher and person. I hope people stop arguing about the reporter and give Kevin his deserved respect
How interesting that we all have our own interpretations of everything we see and hear.
If I were to drop in my tracks out back this afternoon while chopping wood, half the people who heard of it would say how nice it was that humble passed away peacefully and quickly doing something that he enjoyed in his favorite place in all the world.
The other half would say that the old fool would still be alive if he’d stayed in the house that afternoon and taken a nap.
The humble Farmer
That is a darn shame. I had a brother who died of a heart attack in a similar situation. Lots of people out there running and bicycling with plugged up arteries.
I am truly sorry for the loss for this family. In a side note: You seldom see the headline “man dies after watching tv” so I think I am safe.
It is standard proceedure and a courtesy to contact those who are the subjects of a story, even if they are family of the deceased. This is a person with a high profile, to some extent, who has been featured in the news, so his death is notable. In most cases, a family understands this. In many cases, the family or a family representative is glad to make a public statement, is often honored that the public cares and is aware that their grief is shared by others. (This is true even in some horrific situations.) The call to a grieving family is the hardest one a reporter ever makes and in local news you generally find the reporter to be sensitive and as unobtrusive as possible.
We’re getting a bit off topic. Condolences to this family and the school community on this tragic death.
I grieve for his family. But worse yet. This is terrible reporting. He died in Rangeley, not Falmouth.