Forty years worth of memories walking the halls, coaching on the field or teaching in the classroom, Seymour High School Principal Greg Prange said it’s overwhelming to think of the amount of memories he has made over the years.

“All of these things you don’t realize at the time, like how precious every day is, every moment, every practice, every game, because eventually, everything is going to come to an end,” he said.

For the longtime principal, his chapter at Seymour High School will come to a close Oct. 31, as he announced his retirement at a recent school board meeting.

“It’s been a good run,” he said. “The people here are my second family, and this is my second home. This really is all I know.”

Prange said it wasn’t his decision to retire at this time, but due to recent news of his cancer returning, he felt it was the best decision not only for himself and his family but also for the school.

“I was told I have limited time, and it’s not what we had planned, but it’s God’s plan,” he said. “We are making the plans that we have to at this time for my family and I.”

With a future unknown, Prange said he is remaining positive for his family, staff, students and others in the community, appreciating his quality time with others along the way.

“I get up and thank God for every day that I am here, and when the time comes that he’s ready for me, I will be ready for him,” he said. “I want to remember the good times.”

In remembering the good times, Prange said he will never forget the moment he knew he wanted to go into the education field. He said he didn’t realize it at the time, but with two very influential people in his life, Joe Goodman and Mickey Beck, he was taken under their wing at a young age.

Prange’s first day of high school was in the summer of 1975 when he took a health class with Goodman, who later ended up coaching Prange on the football team.

Goodman, a former legendary football coach at Seymour High School, kept a long list of rules for leadership that Prange often looked to for inspiration. In fact, to this day, Prange still has the list of Goodman’s leadership rules displayed in his office and has for years.

“I miss him every day,” Prange said. “My favorite rule is probably his No. 1 rule, which is to surround yourself with good people and help them, encourage them and compliment them.”

Prange said because of that rule, he has built the best team of educators by surrounding himself with the right people.

“I have never been great at anything, but I have been good at some things, and probably the best thing is I have the right people around me,” he said. “My administrators, counselors and teachers, we really do hire the best people possible for all positions.”

In his 40 years of education, Prange has now been involved in the hiring process of close to 95% of the people who now work at Seymour High School.

“You get the people that you trust and that you want to be around, and then you get out of their way,” he said. “I can’t go into a Spanish classroom and tell them how to teach Spanish, but I can tell when good teaching is going on.”

Seymour Community School Corp. Superintendent Brandon Harpe is one of those people Prange saw potential in when he hired him originally as a teacher and football and track and field coach in 1999.

“He eventually talked me into becoming his dean of students in 2004 and saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself,” Harpe said. “He put his heart and soul into this school and is such an icon to this community.”

Harpe said with Prange being the most tenured member of Seymour High School, he cannot thank him enough for everyone he has mentored along the way in his career.

When it was time for Prange to go off to college, he initially thought he was going to major in optometry. He said now, he is thankful that didn’t work out, but he still explored various classes his first semester at Indiana University.

“I had a come to Jesus moment over Christmas break, and that helped me solidify my desire to start teaching,” he said.

Prange majored in health and safety at IU after considering a transfer to play football at other small colleges wasn’t his dream. Still needing a minor to go along with his degree, he looked back on how his sophomore year biology class with Beck impacted him. Later on, Beck ended up being his basketball coach throughout high school.

“Even though health and safety was my major, I never taught it,” he said. “I taught biology and other sciences.”

In an effort to snag any teaching opportunities he could acquire, Prange taught biology during the summer at SHS. Prange said he remembers collecting leaves in the front yard of the school when former principal Dave Shaw asked him a question that would ultimately change his life.

“Mr. Shaw tapped on his window and asked me through the window if I wanted to teach here next fall, and of course, I said yes,” he said. “That was my interview.”

Prange was told at the time that his position was only going to be for one year, and afterwards, he wasn’t guaranteed if he would still teach at Seymour. He started his teaching career in the fall of 1984 and described it as a leap of faith.

“Almost 40 years later and I’m still here,” he said. “It’s been a long year.”

On Prange’s first day of his teaching career, he was set up in Classroom 118 with an empty aquarium, a chicken skeleton that still exists somewhere in the science department to this day and a big book filled with biology tests.

“My first day of teaching, I opened up the biology book with the students, and I’ll tell you what, I think I just went blank,” he said. “As time went on, we got better. We got the lesson plans and material. The second and third weeks were a lot better than the first day.”

Even though his first day of his career proved to be stressful, he knew he had a good support system.

“You don’t go to college to become a teacher and find out in college how to be a teacher,” he said. “You’ve got to work with the kids and be in the classroom, work with your colleagues and you will make an awful lot of mistakes.”

Prange thought back on the amount of support he received starting out as a young teacher and again took one of Goodman’s rules to heart: Support your teachers, for they are the lifeblood.

“We’ve got a lot of young teachers in the building right now that will get better as they experience things,” he said. “It’s important to support them through these early years. I got a lot of support in my early days, especially from Rick Schuley, who taught across the hallway from me.”

After teaching biology and coaching for 15 years, Prange said he wanted to challenge himself and decided to apply for an athletic director position. After applying for the position several times and being denied, he said he realized now it was probably a sign for him, as he eventually landed the assistant principal chair instead in 1999.

With 40 years in education with a mix of teaching and administration work, Prange said he has seen the education system change in many different ways, often describing some changes like a table.

“It’s like this round table. I have seen policies and programs go all the way around and then back to square one or maybe it’s something that we did 20 years ago or even 10 years ago,” he said. “Some of the best teaching techniques were techniques that I was critiqued upon 30 years ago. Sometimes, it just comes back around.”

Prange said where kids decide to go after they leave the halls of high school often changes. From vocational and skilled trades to four-year or more degrees, the education system is constantly changing, and Prange said it’s just part of human nature.

“Our vocational education has boomed in the last couple of years thanks to our ag-science center and Owl Manufacturing, but now, people are wondering why kids don’t go to college much anymore,” he said. “It just changes all the time, but we are continuing to grow by leaps and bounds.”

Looking back on his time at SHS, Prange said many things keep him going, but one thing in particular is the hope that he made a difference.

“I‘ve got a lot of memories, so it’s hard not to start tearing up when I start thinking about it,” he said. “If you wrap all of the experiences I had into one package, it’s overwhelming. I sure didn’t do all of this for the paycheck.”

Prange said he recently attended a volleyball sectional game with his wife, Jill, and as he sat there, he began to count the former students who were watching the game or watching their kids play in the game. He counted nine former students who now have their own kids, and he still remembers when they were young students themselves.

“When you think of the big picture, it is profound how meaningful every single memory is, whether it was going to the state finals in football or it’s the talk that you have with a student,” he said.

Prange said he has received many emails over the past few weeks from former students and staff sharing instances of their time in high school where he made a difference in their life.

“Whether they learned a lick about science, football, basketball or whatever from me, I like to think that I had some type of influence on their life that they can look back on and at least have one good memory,” he said. “They don’t always remember what happened, but they will always remember how you treated them.”

Prange said he has been humbly blessed by his staff, students and the community with outreach, love and prayers during this time of hardship for not only him but his family.

“I’m supposed to be the tough one for them, and when you can’t be, it’s hard,” he said. “Even though later on in life, I won’t be in their lives on Earth, I will be in their hearts.”

He said he plans to take the time he has to spend with family and grandchildren and to take one day at a time.

“I’m still here, and I have good days and bad days,” he said. “The good outweighs the bad, and that is what keeps me going.”

For his students, Prange said he always felt if he can see them succeed in life and become contributing, responsible members of society raising their families, then he knows he did his job well. Doing all of that in Seymour, he said with a smile, is a preference of his.

“I always joked with the students and said, ‘I want you to get a good job and pay taxes so I can retire someday,’” he said, laughing.

As a parting message for every family, faculty member, student and the community, Prange had a final few words to say before leaving his legacy behind.

“Take care of yourselves and take care of each other,” he said. “Kids, do the best you can and you will be surprised what you’ve got inside of you. Don’t ever quit.”

If you go

What: Retirement open house for Greg Prange

When: 2 to 5 p.m. Nov. 4

Where: Knights of Columbus Council 1252, 118 E. Second St., Seymour

Who: Friends, family and community members are invited to attend and share memories, well wishes and words of thanks with Prange