WALDOBORO, Maine — Principal Harold Wilson said each day he walks from his car to the doors of Medomak Valley High School, he asks himself what he can do to make the day better for each student.
At the end of the day if he can’t say he did, “then I haven’t done my job,” Wilson said.
His dedication to the high schoolers is being recognized by the students and staff as Wilson faces his greatest challenge: advanced liver cancer.
“I’m overwhelmed by the support,” Wilson said Thursday from his St. George home, a day after he underwent his first chemotherapy treatment at Pen Bay Medical Center in Rockport.
The community will be hosting a benefit spaghetti dinner and raffle starting 4:30 Wednesday, April 8, at Medomak Valley. Local businesses have donated items, the front office staff has organized the event and students, staff and citizens are volunteering for the event.
Also, on Friday afternoon, 18 teachers were to have their heads shaved as a way to show support for Wilson.
Vice Principal Andrew Cavanaugh said students and faculty realize the dedication Wilson has given to the school during his 25 years at Medomak Valley, including the past nine as its principal.
“We already miss his leadership, his thoughtful approach, his kindness. We want him to to get better and walk back through the door,” Cavanaugh said.
Teacher Neil Lash echoed those comments.
“He has such great faith, which translates into an uncommon caring about students, the school and the staff,” Lash said.
Wilson’s empathy extends to those students who are most struggling and in need of support.
Student Aaron Smeltzer said Wilson always has a smile for students and will ask them how things are going when there is a problem in their lives.
“You don’t know how uplifting that smile is until you don’t have it here,” he said of Wilson’s absence.
Wilson did not start off with education as his career goal. A St. George native and 1969 graduate of Georges Valley High School in Thomaston, Wilson came from a fishing family. He went lobstering and worked aboard sardine carriers operated by his grandfather and uncle. He went to the University of Maine at Orono and earned a civil engineering degree in 1973. He was employed in the Rockland area for two years with a company that worked with small sewage treatment plants.
When the economy slowed because of the first Arab oil embargo, he returned to fishing. After earning enough to buy a small, old lobster boat, he fished with 300 traps for a while.
But he said that work became routine and boring, and he wanted more of a challenge. He also wanted a job that provided health insurance because he was the father of three children. This led to him being hired by the Calvary Baptist Church school in Warren to teach science and math for grades seven through 12.
He held that job for six years but wanted a change and applied for a job as a chemistry teacher at Medomak. He recalled that the process lasted for a while, being rejected once before the first choice for the job turned down the post, and ended with him getting a call from the school’s principal Ronald Dolloff on the day before he was asked to start in September 1989.
“I decided I had to fish or cut bait, so I said yes,” Wilson said.
This hiring has led to his 25 years at Medomak Valley, which serves about 550 students from Waldoboro, Warren, Union, Washington and Friendship.
The veteran educator said his philosophy is to make students comfortable so they will talk with him. When students come to his office, he comes out from behind his desk. He also believes in giving clean slates to any student who misbehaves, even if they are suspended for school for a few days.
He said some of these students come from homes where there may be domestic violence or the lack of food. Wilson said he realizes he was fortunate to come from a home where he had loving and caring parents but that if he had come from a home that some of the students have, things could have turned out differently. That is why he and his staff work to inspire students.
In terms of his illness, Wilson said he began feeling tired during the Christmas holiday but figured it was because he was burning both ends of the candle at school and because of family festivities. The tiredness got worse, however, and he went to his doctor. He was prescribed antibiotics, but that did not help and eventually he went to the hospital on Valentine’s Day. The doctor who was on duty was a former chemistry student of his at MVHS.
After several blood tests and a CAT scan were performed, the former student broke the news to him: liver cancer that had metastasized from some other location, likely his small intestine.
That has led to surgeries at a cancer center in Augusta, followed by more surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
After his diagnosis, Wilson went to the school to inform his staff. He has taken a leave as he undergoes treatment.
He may be away from school, but he certainly has not been forgotten.
The students and staff held a competition to see which of the two groups could raise the most money from loose change. The students won and, as a result, 18 teachers agreed to have their heads shaved in a show of support for Wilson.
Lash said this will be the first time he will have his head shaved since he joined the Army in 1967. But he said it is worth it. Lash was the science department head when Wilson was hired and the two have worked together for the past 25 years.
The students and staff raised $2,000 in the hair-cutting challenge effort, Smeltzer said.