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Today's Featured Biography

 
Shirley Ulrich Heckman

Shirley (Ulrich) Heckman

I was born in Wenatchee and went to Columbia School, Emerson Junior High School and Wenatchee High School, all in Wenatchee. Then I attended La Verne College in La Verne, CA. During my Junior year, I was an exchange student in Germany. I visited my Germany family in West Berlin during vacations and attended the Pedagogische Hochschule (teacher training college) in Goettingen during the school year. Friendships formed during this year have continued to this day.

Graduating from La Verne College in February 1958, I began teaching third grade in a nearby elementary school to finish the school year. Then I taught one year at Washington Elementary in Wenatchee in 1958-59.

Marlin and I were married in 1959 and moved to Chicago where I again taught third grade while Marlin continued his education at Bethany Theological Seminary. Following his graduation from the Seminary, he became librarian at Bethany and went to the University of Chicago, earning an MA and Ph.D. in Library Science.

1963 was a big year! We moved to the Chicago suburbs, our first daughter, Karin, was born, and Marlin continued as librarian at Bethany Seminary.

In 1969 we added another daughter (Linda) to our family and I began working on my MS degree in Education with a specialty in the teaching of reading.

In 1971, I finished my MS. degree at Northern Illinois University and the offer came to Marlin return to La Verne College and become the College Librarian. We were very glad to return to La Verne and to the West Coast--no more snow to shovel!

I continued working through 18 semester units to complete the requirements for the California Reading Specialist Credential and then began working as a reading specialist in the Ontario-Montclair School District in 1975.

Skipping ahead a few years, I retired from full time teaching in 1994, and continued to teach part-time at a local community college and to substitute teach at my former school for several years.

A fun and interesting part of my life and been ringing in and directing hand bell choirs. From 1981 until June 2008, I directed the hand bell choirs at my church and also rang with a choir from nearby Claremont. With the Claremont choir, Marlin and I have traveled to International Hand bell Symposiums in England (2000) and Australia (2006).

Traveling has been another joy in our lives. We have traveling with Untours.com five times to Switzerland and once to Germany. Of course, we also visited our friends in Germany before or after our Untour vacations in Switzerland. All trips were very enjoyable, however, this summer (2008) in Switzerland I investigated the Interlaken hospital for a week while having surgery on a broken leg! The hospital staff and surgical experience rate a grade of A+.

I am looking forward to seeing classmates who come to the 55th reunion next weekend in Wenatchee!

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