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Nelson retires after 21 years at WNC
May 9, 2008, 12:05 AM
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When the Fallon campus of Western Nevada College holds its commencement ceremony May 19 at the Oats Park Center's Barkley Theater, Paul Nelson will be making his final appearance in his position college's senior counselor.
After 27 years service at the school, Paul, who also holds the title of assistant director of counseling for the multi-campus WNC system, is retiring, and I am proud to be among his many friends and the thousands of former students he has guided and mentored. We salute him for his lengthy and extraordinarily successful career in western Nevada higher education.
Paul, 62, arrived at the Fallon WNC campus in 1981 following three years service as counselor at Pershing County's senior and junior high schools in Lovelock.
Born in Palo Alto, Calif., where his father was a civil engineer, Paul and his family later moved to the Monterey Peninsula area. Following high school, Paul received a bachelor's degree in social work at Sacramento State University and a MA in counseling at Chapman University.
When Paul came to Fallon in 1981, WNC (which was called Western Nevada Community College until 2006) had just built the first permanent structure of its current three-building campus.
Sage Hall supplanted the several temporary buildings used by the college, which included Oats Park School, Churchill County High School and a rented office building on Maine Street south of the public library.
"The college in those days had just a few hundred students and a very small faculty and staff, and as a result, all of us employed at the school pitched in to maintain the building and grounds," Paul recounts.
Bus Scharmann, the campus dean who first came to the Fallon campus in 1977 when it was in its infancy, remembers one instance when the plumbing system at the brand-new Sage Hall malfunctioned.
"All of the toilets were overflowing, and raw sewage was running down the halls and into the classrooms and offices. Paul Nelson was the first person to volunteer to help clean up the mess, and I will never forget the sight of Paul grabbing a mop and joining us in cleaning up that awful sight.
"Paul has had a startling influence on me, our students, faculty and staff. He's been the person I can seek out to talk things out and bring me back to reality.
"Paul won the University Regents Award for exceptional service to our college, and there are countless of students here in Churchill County, Fallon and throughout Nevada and the country who admire and respect him for steering them towards their academic goals," Bus told me.
Former English professor Michon Mackedon, who retired from WNC several years ago, agrees with Bus.
"Paul has an extraordinary way of working with students. He has a professional and direct but kind manner in dealing with students so they can respect and relate to him. He will be sorely missed," she said.
Paul's counseling responsibilities, I learned from Dean Scharmann and college President Carol Lucey, included working with WNC students and prospective students at far-flung high schools and the college's satellite rural campuses such as those at Lovelock, Fernley, Hawthorne and Yerington.
"I've traveled to Austin, Eureka and all over Western Nevada to counsel high school students on the importance of attending college. And I've had many success stories," said Paul.
He mentioned two outstanding students with physical challenges who went on to receive WNC degrees. One was a deaf-mute student who earned an AA in general studies. The other was a young man who was injured while bull riding.
He was in a coma but came out of it, suffered severe paralysis, and managed to walk down the aisle during graduation to receive his degree.
"Paul is one of our heroes. He is part of that important band of educators who inspire our students to succeed. I don't know that we will do without him," said Lucey.
Paul says he was guided to a career in education by his parents, who told their children that higher education is critical to a full life and a successful career. That message was given him particularly by his mother, Jeanie, who passed away in Fallon on April 17 at the age of 96.
Paul notes that his son Matthew is an architect in Salt Lake City, son Andrew is pursuing a degree in philosophy at San Francisco State University, daughter Margaret is a CCHS senior who will enroll next year at Gonzaga University and son Christopher, a Los Angeles teacher, is a University of Southern California grad and is completing work on an MA in education at Chapman University, the same school where Paul received his graduate degree.
Paul's wife, Bernadette, is also joining him in retirement this year. She will retire as a kindergarten teacher at Lahontan Elementary School following 36 years as a teacher in California, Lovelock and Fallon.
I know that the multitude of friends and admirers of Paul and Bernadette Nelson wish them great happiness in their twin retirements for jobs well done in their long and admirable careers in education.
The Nelsons will remain in Fallon, and I'm sure we've not heard the last of them in their service to this community.
- David C. Henley is Publisher Emeritus of the LVN
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