Memories – Faculty – George C. Baughan

Here’s what we remember about Mr. Baughan

George Baughan

FromSchoolGirl57:

I thought Mr. Baughan was one of the most interesting teachers we had. Some of it was his classroom, with the seats at the front and the lab setup at the back. It felt more like a college classroom. Some of it was the subject matter, because I liked Chemistry and thought he was a good instructor. Some of it, however, was just Mr. Baughan himself. He was one of those obviously serious people who had managed to keep the twinkle in his eye, and I thought he dressed in a very dapper way.

When Christmas came around, I asked my mother if she would get me a nice present to give Mr. Baughan and suggested a red tie. She obligingly produced a red silk tie with a subtle modern pattern. I thought the tie was pretty cool, and so I wasn’t surprised when, the first day after the holiday, Mr. Baughan came up to me in the hallway, absolutely beaming. “I want to thank you for that wonderful present. I can’t tell you what it means to me.” Wow. He really liked it. When I went to History class, Mrs. Baughan also mentioned how much he liked his present. This was getting better and better.

A few weeks later, Mr. Baughan mentioned it again, this time saying something about the gift being the perfect assortment, which made absolutely no sense. But we were interrupted before he could say anything further.

It was only at the end of the school year that I discovered, in the course of a casual conversation, that he was under the impression that I had given him not a tie, but a set of measuring beakers, evidently a fairly significant set. When he reiterated how thoughtful a gift he considered this, I tried to tell him that it wasn’t me who had been so thoughtful, but he totally misunderstood. “Now, now. Don’t be embarrassed by being more imaginative than other people. Mostly all I get are ties. I must have a drawer full of ties, so getting something this useful was a breath of fresh air.”

I was still trying to figure out what to say to make clear that he had given me credit for someone else’s gift when he grinned impishly, patted me on the arm, and turned to talk with another teacher who’d come up.

That was my last day at WEHS. Due to scheduling issues, I’d taken Chemistry as a senior. I always thought I’d run into him again somewhere and get the whole thing straightened out, but it never happened.

Several years later my younger sister had Mr. Baughan for Chemistry and, when he realized who she was, he said, “Oh yes, I remember her clearly. She’s the one who gave me the most wonderful gift I ever got from a student.”

So if the person who actually gave the “most wonderful gift” should happen to read this, I apologize. That must have been a terrific set of beakers you came up with!

From Jeff Webb:

I took chemistry in 1958 and of course, Mr Baughan was the teacher. The episode I will never forget came when we were in the lab and the assignment was to make soap. Of course, the process involved a solution in a beaker, over a Bunsen burner. The result was supposed to eventually produce a glob of soap. During the process, my beaker exploded, showering glass and a half-baked mess of soap everywhere. Kids ran every which way, but for some reason Ijust stood there. Somehow, the hot soap landed mostly on my lab coat and I didn’t get cut by glass Mr. Baughan slowly approached the mess and looked at it for a minute. I was waiting for the axe to fall, to begin the journey to Mr. Wood or Mr. Wilder’s office to face my fate. Mr. Baughan shook his head and said, “I’ve never seen anybody blow soap up.” My fate was to clean the mess up and endure the jibes of my classmates and others for quite sometime afterwards. Mr. Baughan was a class act.

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