A Life: Carl Hussey ‘was a teacher at heart’

LEBANON — For nearly 30 years, Carl Hussey — “Mr. Wonderful” to his students — taught social studies at Lebanon Junior High School.

Engaging and interesting, Hussey made learning fun as he held the attention of young teens with his passion and emotion when talking about some of the major events of the 20th century including the Great Depression, the Holocaust and the Vietnam War.

Former student Mary Ellen Lagasse, who now lives in Maine, recalled the lessons on the Holocaust and Hussey impressing upon his students the importance of people being humane to each other.

“I also remember him crying and I think that showed his humanity,” Lagasse said. “That is hard material, but he did not soften it because it couldn’t be softened. He was respectful of what we could handle and how we needed to see those horrors in a way that we still felt safe. But he also taught us hope and that was a big piece of it.”

Hussey died in hospice care in Scarborough, Maine, on May 18, after a period of failing health. He was 82.

Following his death, the Lebanon High School alumni Facebook page began filling up with tributes. Close to 150 messages were posted, many by former students fondly remembering Hussey as an inspiration, an amazing teacher and human being who brought history to life. Perhaps the most common praise was “favorite teacher” who touched countless lives and left a beautiful legacy.

“My favorite teacher for so many reasons,” wrote Sarah Moffitt Teevens. “He loved what he taught, which made his lessons engaging. There are some people I’ve met in my life whom I will always remember with a smile and a deep sense of gratitude. Mr. Hussey is at the top of that list.”

Hussey was born Dec. 14, 1942, in Lynn, Mass., to Fred and Anna Hussey. When his father left to serve in World War II, Carl went with his mother to live with her parents in Lancaster, N.H. He and his younger sister, Jane, born in 1946, were raised in Lancaster where Carl lettered in three sports and was senior class president.

“I adored my brother,” said Jane, who lives in Strafford, N.H. “And he always looked out for me. Whenever I was upset about something, he would always say, ‘The sun will shine tomorrow’.”

After graduating high school in 1960, Hussey earned a degree in psychology from the University of New Hampshire. In his junior year, he met his future wife, Nancy Hutchins, in a sociology class. They were married two years later.

“I knew the minute I met him this is someone I could spend the rest of my life with,” said Nancy, who lives in Cumberland, Maine, where she and Carl moved in 2014. “He was just so genuine.”

Carl’s dad suggested he consider working where he did at General Electric, but Nancy said the “corporate” world with suits and ties did not interest her husband. After returning to UNH to obtain his teaching certificate, Hussey landed his first teaching job in Windsor in 1965 and eight years later was hired in Lebanon.

Chuck Stone, an educator in Enfield, became close friends with Hussey. Stone and his wife lived near the Husseys’ Bank Street home.

Stone remembers takinglong walks in the neighborhood with Hussey where they discussed world affairs and their yearly trips north to the Dartmouth Grant, 27,000 acres of college-owned wilderness in northern New Hampshire.

“Those trips were extra special,” Stone said. “Carl had a strong moral compass. He cared a lot about the world.”

Art Pease, another friend, met Hussey in the early 1970s when each were working on a master’s degree by taking summer classes at Dartmouth. They started playing one-on-one basketball at Alumni Gym lumni gym and quickly became close friends. When Hussey was hired in Lebanon, Pease headed the social studies department head for both the high school and junior high.

“Carl was one of the two or three best teachers I have ever known, without question,” Pease said.

Each teacher had to complete a self-evaluation form, grading themselves in different categories, and the department head would do one as well and then they compared them.

“I used to have to fight like hell to get him to accept my responses,” Pease said. “He would put down ‘needs improvement’ in some areas and I put it down as a strength. He was never satisfied with himself and he was very modest in terms of what he had accomplished in the classroom and the impact he had on kids.”

In a 1983 Valley News profile on the first day of class that year, Hussey said when the school year ended he cleared his mind from school, or a least tried to, for about two weeks before preparing for the next school year.

“You could be doing something unrelated and something comes up and you think, that’s a good idea. Zillions and zillions of thoughts come up all summer long,” he told the Valley News. “Summer is when the energies come back. Energy and enthusiasm are keys to learning.”

Hussey was honored with the “Teacher to Remember” award in 1994 by the state of New Hampshire and the Bryne Award for Outstanding Teaching in 1999.

Since his father’s death, Hussey’s son, Mike, who also had his father as a teacher, said he has heard from many people who told him Hussey made learning fun and interesting.

“A lot have said having him as a teacher made them decide to take their studies seriously,” said Mike, who lives in Maine.

After 20 years of teaching, Hussey still worked nights and weekends drawing up new lesson plans, Nancy said. “He didn’t want them to get bored,” she said.

Matthew Hussey, the older of the Husseys’ two children, said the Facebook comments on the Lebanon High School alumni page brought home to him the impact his father had all those years.

“Dad was a teacher at heart,” said Matthew, who lives in New Jersey. “It wasn’t just checking the box; it was, how do I convey the past to students in seventh and eighth grade.”

Hussey took his time grading students’ papers and tests in the evenings and wrote comments in the margins, Matthew recalled.

“I have so many memories of the passion he put into the school and students.”

Hussey’s teaching style and his interest in 20th century history was likely influenced by his father’s World War II service on the aircraft carrier the USS Intrepid in the Pacific, Matthew and Mike said. “He brought that personal connection and made it real for students,” Matthew said. “It wasn’t just reading text; it was an emotional connection to what really happened and putting the students in the lives of the people who went through it.”

When he wasn’t teaching in the classroom, Hussey was teaching outside of it in places like the baseball diamond, where he coached his sons and others in T-ball and Little League. Matthew skied in the Ford Sayre program throughout his school years.

“Dad was my technician, working for hours to tune the skis, wax them and get them ready for the weekend races,” Matthew said. “He did so much for not only Mike and me but for everyone else. He gave and gave and never asked for anything in return, not once.”

Hussey’s devotion to his students went beyond the classroom.

“He looked out for those kids who maybe were in a tough situation at home,” Mike said. “He might take them fishing at the Norford Lake Club (in Thetford and Norwich) or spend extra time with them after school.”

Nancy Hussey recalled getting a call at work one afternoon from her husband who asked if he could bring a student home for dinner.

“He was having problems at home and the first person he went to was Carl,” Nancy said. “It didn’t matter to Carl what background these kids came from. If they needed help, Carl was the first to give it to them.”

About the time Hussey, who had led an active lifestyle that included a lot of hiking, basketball, softball and tending to his prolific gardens, retired from teaching in his early 60s his life took a terrible turn. Back surgery was “botched,” Nancy said, and it left him in chronic, unrelenting pain the last 20 years of his life.

“We never lost hope that we could find some help but test after test, surgery after surgery and we never got any answers,” Nancy said. “But no matter how much pain he was in, he was the family’s pillar of strength.”

The failed procedure and subsequent pain robbed Hussey of his ability to remain active, but it did not crush his spirit.

“Those last two decades were just horrible for him but you would never hear him complain,” said his son Mike. “He was just so positive and optimistic and didn’t let it ruin anyone else’s time with him.”

Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.