BUCKSPORT, Maine — When Bob Cloutier began working in his current profession, John F. Kennedy was president of the United States.
Now — 54 years, nine presidents and three high schools later — Cloutier has recently begun his 37th year teaching English at Bucksport High School, where, according to students and faculty, he has made a lasting impression on thousands of students who have passed through the building.
“He’s the last dinosaur,” Chris Jones, a former student of Cloutier’s who now teaches history and coaches cross country at Bucksport, joked about his mentor.
Cloutier, known to many simply as “Clout” (pronounced “kloot”), grew up in Gardiner and followed his aunt into the teaching profession. Now 78, he began his career in 1961 after attending the University of Maine at Farmington and graduate school at Springfield College in Massachusetts. He spent 18 years teaching elsewhere before starting in Bucksport in the fall of 1979.
According to fellow English teacher Emily Morrison, whenever Cloutier speaks at school functions, students give him a special introduction.
“They all go ‘Cloooouuut’ in a really low voice,” she said. “It sounds like he’s being booed but that couldn’t be further from the truth.”
During his career, Cloutier also has coached cross country and basketball, led Bucksport High School’s annual Outing Club trips for three-plus decades, helped establish its nationally recognized BARR program, and founded the school’s annual Mr. Bucksport competition. But for senior student Kaylee Grindle, her teacher stands out for a different reason.
“He’s the only teacher who’s never lost any of our work,” she said last month, sitting in his room near the end of one of his classes.
The wisecrack is indicative of a common theme that ran through a series of recent interviews at the school about Cloutier.
“Everyone loves Clout,” said Sarah Robinson, a history teacher at the school. She said Cloutier taught her at Bucksport as well as her brother and, before that, her father.
According to Cloutier, he grew up poor in Gardiner, living without indoor plumbing until he was a teenager. His father mostly “was not around,” he said, and he frequently got into trouble with his brother David, who later played a year for the old Boston Patriots football team. Both he and David enjoyed athletics and grew interested in coaching, he said, and becoming a teacher was a way to make that happen.
“I played sports but I wasn’t as good as my brother,” Cloutier said. “I was very much interested in coaching.”
After getting his master’s degree in education from Springfield College, he started his career in 1961 teaching English and coaching cross country at Richmond High School. He stayed four years there, also coaching basketball, and then taught and coached in Stonington, Connecticut, for 13 years. He then taught for a year at Searsport before a college friend, Bob Harriman, lured him to Bucksport.
Having a long career as a teacher always was “part of my plan,” Cloutier said, and he soon realized Bucksport was where he wanted to finish. He doesn’t coach anymore, but he still draws energy from the youthful enthusiasm of his students and from members of the Outing Club who, like him, love the outdoors.
“I love teaching. I really do love working with kids. It makes me feel young,” Cloutier said. “I love being around people like that.”
He added, however, that he may decide to hang up his hat. Physically, he said, he feels fit but with the Verso Paper mill closure last year, he expects there will be reductions in the school budget.
“Ideally, I would like to teach as long as possible,” Cloutier said. “We’ll see what happens this year. I am giving some serious thought to [retiring].”
Kristina Cloutier, a junior at the high school, is not related to the venerable teacher but said she sometimes wishes she was. Her freshman year, he jokingly told others at the school that she was his great-granddaughter.
“It was really embarrassing,” she said.
Cloutier, she said, likes to joke but also can be very direct, without mincing words. She said he has a knack for knowing when and with whom he can joke around, and for knowing when to be serious.
“He’s one of those people who knows who can handle [teasing] and who can’t,” she said.
Jones, the former student who has taught at Bucksport for only 28 years, said that Cloutier has never married or started his own family, allowing him the time and energy to devote to his students. He will pay students to do work around his house so they can have some needed spending money, Jones said, and he keeps in touch with many of his former students, often having a weekend dinner with them to catch up on their lives.
Jones said Cloutier’s students, former and current, know they can go to Cloutier for advice, academic or otherwise. Students trust him, despite the age difference, because of his ability to communicate and to listen without being judgmental.
“It’s a skill to do both,” Jones said. “Generations of students have felt that way [about Cloutier]. He’s the one person they can talk to and never have to worry about that stuff being told elsewhere.”
Bill Tracy, who taught alongside Cloutier at Bucksport before becoming the school’s principal this fall, said Cloutier is a “legend” at the school.
“His ability to mentor students and build relationships makes him a student favorite,” Tracy said in an email. “He [has] an unbelievable fire to do what’s best for students.”
Morrison, the English teacher, said Cloutier may be a little behind the times when it comes to modern technology — reading and responding to email is not his strong suit, she said — but he more than makes up for it with the example he sets for students and faculty. Other teachers, she added, are happy to help him out with computer issues when he needs the help.
“He stands for the best of us,” Morrison said. “He’s like a fixture here. I can’t imagine what it would be like without him.”
