Don Bain’s DNA is embedded in Iola High School.
He taught science there for six years, the last two as assistant principal. He then served a dozen more as principal, then 14 as superintendent of schools — 32 years in all.
He’s also a 1951 Iola High School graduate who then followed up with his associates degree from Iola Junior College, when it was still on the high school’s third floor.
“I think I’ve spent more time in that building than anybody,” he joked.
On top of that, he coached basketball for two years, and brags of hiring another IHS icon who eventually took his old teaching job in the chemistry lab, long-time track coach, Marv Smith.
Bain’s lifelong dedication to all things Iola will be recognized Friday, in between the high school girls and boys basketball games.
“Don Bain: A Lifetime of Honors Night” will be hosted by his daughters, Jan Sigg and Jenise Wade. The ceremony should begin around 7 p.m.
Bain suspects he knows why the school is raising such a commotion now.
“My nosy daughters got into my computer,” he explained.
Years ago, before wife Gerry died, she asked her husband a simple request.
“She made me write my own obituary,” he said. “She says, ‘I don’t know all the things you belong to, all the things you do.’ So I wrote one up.”
