GHS MOURNS LOSS OF TECH TEACHER GEORGE GUPPY, WHO MADE SHOP CLASSES ‘AUTHENTIC’
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com
GRAVENHURST — Students and teachers at Gravenhurst High School are mourning the loss of tech teacher George Guppy who died Saturday in snowmobile accident.
The popular automotive and manufacturing instructor, from Utterson, struck a tree while sledding in Burk’s Falls, police say.
He was 57.
Visitation at Reynold’s Funeral Home, Bracebridge, began yesterday and continues this afternoon and evening during a two-day PA break for GHS as it switches from the quadmester system that ended Wednesday and when classes resume on Monday with the old regular semester system.
GHS principal Trent Willett said the school sent out notification to all the parents and guardians last weekend informing them of Guppy’s passing. And the school made “personal calls” to the households of all 21 of his current students to make sure they were aware of what supports were available at the school.
So students had “a caring adult to speak to, to help them work through some of the emotions they would be experiencing.”
Willett also sent out a voice mail to alert everyone of the email.
“I don’t think there was anyone who came back (Monday) who wasn’t aware at that point.”
Willett and Guppy both started at GHS as teachers in 2008. Willett taught for there for over three years before going on to vice principal’s jobs in Huntsville and Bracebridge for three and four years before returning to GHS where he’s now in his fourth year as principal.
“You wouldn’t meet a student who didn’t know George — maybe some Grade 9s who are relatively new. But people know every staff person. Even if you don’t take a course with a teacher there’s the ‘Aloha!’ days and all of the spirit events that he was also part of,” Willett said of the approximately 320 students in the school.
“Obviously he was well-known by all of our students. And a large group of our student population really found that shop a safe place for them. Mr. Guppy was someone they trusted and sought out when they needed advice.
“He really supported a lot of students in finding employment opportunities in the trades and looking at apprenticeship opportunities. Some former students said he was the reason they got into the mechanic’s trade. He really had a significant impact on a lot of kids in the Gravenhurst community for sure.
“Obviously it was something sudden to happen to loved friend and colleague,” said Willett.
“It’s been a challenging week, but I would say our staff …. As you know we are a very tight knit community. People know one another; they care about Gravenhurst High School and the broader community. And have firm belief that Gravenhurst High School is part of a bigger community and the community is part of our school.
“I would say I am blessed and honoured and proud to work with leaders in that building that demonstrated compassion and care for the students who were coming in (this week) and just needed a caring adult to have conversations about their emotions and their feelings.
“And a hard part was for the teachers who just lost a friend and colleague. They were really putting the needs of the students and others first. And I hope they found some time, or will, find some time over the next few days to reflect and share stories and go through the grieving process themselves.”
Thursday and Friday’s professional learning days for the next semester will be “just a different pace to the day to allow some of those conversations and stories to be told.”
Meanwhile, Willett said teachers stepped up this week to cover Guppy’s classes as a hiring process is underway with a posting out now for a replacement teacher.
“We are actively seeking somebody so that we can continue the program that George has really sort of built up.”
Willett said Monday began with “an announcement in the morning and moment of silence together as a school community.
“And I know teachers in classrooms with their students had conversations about George. At this point we have not had any whole school assembly” or anything like that yet.
Guppy was teaching one course this past semester.
Meanwhile, Willett said different staff members who worked with the students, the technology department head and another senior member of staff who was covering that class for the final couple days of the quadmester all checked in several times this week to see how students were doing make sure they were OK and coping as well as possible.
“Yeah, myself and our vice principal Ms (Lorey) Sargent definitely checked in on them a few times for sure.
“And we had extra support, the school board arranged for more counselling support to be available throughout the day. Any student who needed somebody to talk to was able to come down to guidance and meet with somebody.”
Willett said there were “definitely a number of students who had a very close connection with George. … I would say there are a number of students who knew George well and considered him a mentor. And somebody who was guiding him in their post secondary pathway decisions.”
“He made the learning opportunities as real as possible.”
One of them was Freddie Wallace, who is 23 now and works at Wayne’s Tire.
The 2016 GHS grad was one of “Guppy’s Girls,” a lunch hour group of more than a dozen girls who met to share their teacher’s goal of getting more girls interested in automotive manufacturing.
She said she was in all his classes for her four years at GHS.
“He was so level-headed. And had so much patience. He took extra time to explain things to us away from the other boys. He even bought us lunch.”
Wallace said he helped a lot of students, even taking them by bus over to Midland for extra training at a Georgian Bay college training centre.
She also learned all types of welding from her “favourite teacher.”
He also helped her get in to a mechanic’s apprentice program, which got cut short by the pandemic.
Through him she and other students had workplace co-op placement experience in local shops and garages around Gravenhurst, including Wayne’s Tire where Wallace works.
And in Bracebridge at Cavalcade Ford.
Wayne’s Tire co-owner Brad Nichols described Guppy as “A hell of a great guy.” Nichols said he helped a lot of students after work.
Willett said students worked on a lot cars and small engines.
“I myself have had my vehicle in there to have inspections done, the odd oil change or tire rotation. They really have been working on cars brought in by staff members. So students really do get the true experience of diagnosing the real issues and how to remedy them. Even going as far as ordering the parts and pricing it out.
“It’s been pretty well an authentic learning opportunity down in that shop that he created for his students. That’s for sure.”
Willett said he and several teachers have booked visitation times Friday to pay their respects.
Wallace added she, too, would be attending along with some of Guppy’s Girls.
Wallace said he helped a lot of students, even taking them by bus Wednesdays for eight weeks over to Midland for extra training at a Georgian College training centre to earn them a college credit.
Former principal Rick Sellon (2003-2012) was among GHS alumni teachers who attended Thursday night, which he called a testament to how well-liked and respected Guppy was.
“There were a number of GHS staff and a number of old GHSers as well.”
Sellon called his death “very much of a shock. Very sad. His wife’s a really lovely woman and two nice kids.”
Sellon said he and former vp Cathy Brown hired him. He thought it was closer to 2006.
Guppy had been a service mechanic in Orillia and transitioned to education and got his education degree. A few years ago the family moved to a family cottage at Skeleton Lake.
“He was the salt of the earth,” said Sellon, “very handy. A really nice man.
“The kids really liked him. He had a very quiet disposition — but firm.”
“Just a very mild-mannered approach. I never heard him yell at anybody or get angry with a kid. He just quietly took them aside and talked to them.”
Sellon said: “For kids who don’t maybe gravitate to the academic subjects — they like the shop subjects — George just connected with those kids unbelievably well. He really encouraged them and was there to guide them. And he obviously had lots of experience from the automotive world.
“He was the kind of guy who would help out anybody.”
Sellon recalls that if there was any time a teacher couldn’t get their car going after school Guppy would be out there and have them going in no time.
“You just took it to George and he’d have you away.
“He was just really a kind, kind man. And it was such a shame to lose him at 57.
“He was really one of the good guys.
“I know the kids liked him. It’s important for the kids to like you. But it’s also important for kids to respect you. And I think he had that respect.”
Sellon said Guppy wanted to give the students who were destined for the trades a good breadth of knowledge.
And he was involved with that duel-credit Georgian College campus course, which gave them a “leg up” spending time with a professor and provided them a college credit.
“George was really keen on exposing the kids to that. He felt strongly that that was a really good opportunity and exposure for the kids.”
Sellon, too, recalls his own daughter joining Guppy’s Girls.
“It was just for girls who were going to get their driver’s licence and he wanted to give them the basics of what’s under the hood. How do you put the fluid for you windshield wipers. How do you change a tire. … Just sort of general maintenance. It’s a knowledge that he thought young girls maybe wouldn’t have that experience going to get their licence. He ran that at lunchtime on his own time.
“And I think, too, he wanted to expose the girls to the shops. Because shops tended to be a little more appealing to boys. And he ended up attracting some kids who got in to the shop end of things and into welding. Some females went on and are still doing some welding and employed in the welding field.
“He was another one who encouraged the non-traditional roles for women.”
Guppy is survived by his wife, Carolyn, and two sons, Michael and Andrew.
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