Changing Times Former teacher, 107, reflects on classroom
Helen Cypher knows a thing or two about longevity. After all, she didn't have a teaching career that started in the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration in 1933 and lasted until the Gerald Ford presidency in 1977 without showing her durability.
She's counted as the oldest member of her church, St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church, 315 Stoney Hollow Road, Cabot. And last week when she turned 107 on Thursday, she became the oldest client in Concordia Lutheran Ministries personal care unit, and she proved her persistence once again.
“I was born Sept. 5, 1912, that was a long time ago,” said Cypher. “I was born at home (in Winfield Township). My parents were Flavius and Salina Denny.”
“My dad was sort of a farmer. He pumped gas in Winfield and ran a store in Leasureville.”
The youngest of five children, Cypher said she graduated from Slippery Rock Normal School in 1933 with a degree in public education.
Her first job was teaching grades one through eight in a one-room school house.
“I started teaching at the old school in Clearfield Township,” she said. “I think it was close to 40 students in eight grades.”
“There was a stove in the center of the room,” she said. “The older boys carried the coal in from the outside.
“I taught there for many years and then I got a chance to teach at Winfield (then called Winfield High School). It was closer to home,” Cypher said.
Riding herd on 40 students was a formidable task, but Cypher said she was up to it.“I used to have to paddle them when they did something wrong. Or I made them stand in the corner.”“I was strict. There was a paddle that I used in the classroom. I didn't take any guff from the students,” she said. “I tried to keep everybody busy.”Bringing weapons to school wasn't just a modern problem, she recalled.“One of the eighth-grade boys brought a knife to school,” she said. “I didn't know he had a knife. One of the other students drew my attention to it.”“I did a lot of talking to him to relieve him of it. Some of the older boys got to talking to him, telling him what to do,” she said.That happened a lot, she said. “The older boys helped protect me from anything going wrong. The older grades would teach the younger grades.”Things were different in those days, she said. Carrying a knife wasn't that unusual for a teenage boy.
<br />Also different in those days, Cypher noted, was when a student got in trouble in school, he could expect to be in even more trouble at home when his parents got the news.“Before I retired, well I couldn't use corporal punishment anymore and when a child got into trouble, well the parents acted like it was my fault.”“Parents blamed me for the behavior of their children. That was the impression I got,” she said.“The last 10 years were the hardest,” she said of her teaching career.“I retired from Winfield when it was just an elementary school,” she said. With the completion of Knoch High School in 1958, Winfield High School was converted to an elementary school as part of the South Butler County School District.“I taught so many over so many years,” she said. “I can't answer how many. Figure there was 30 to 40 in a room times 44 years.”“I have taught the children of students that I taught. I don't know if I taught any grandchildren of students,” she said.Following the death of her husband, Phillip Cypher in 1980, she continued to live in the red brick home on Marwood Road that she had lived in since 1940.
Cypher said that after retirement she busied herself with work for the Christian Mothers of St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church, cooking dinners for the American Legion and serving as president of the American Legion Auxiliary.“I enjoyed my years in teaching, helping the children,” she said. “Now, I enjoy cooking and making good things for people.”“I did a lot of reading and usually helped bake bread and cookies,” she said.Her daughter, Sandra Grau of Midlothian, Va., said her recipes, especially for her cinnamon rolls and the chicken recipe she made for the American Legion made her locally famous.She didn't quite get away from molding young minds.For years, she said she kept a lending library of children's books in her basement.Grau said her mother was still driving her car when she was 101.Grau said, “Five years ago, she broke her femur and stopped driving.”Then the former teacher had a fall in July that left her hospitalized and in a lot of pain.After a rehabilitation stint, Grau said, “She was pretty amazing. She was walking using her walker, but she couldn't get in or out of bed.”So, the decision was made to move into Concordia's Lund Care Center in the first week of August.Her family, which now includes nine great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren, gathered at Concordia on Sept. 1 to mark her 107th birthday a little early.“I feel pretty good, healthwise,” said Cypher, noting she has long-lived ancestors in her family tree.“I go and eat lunch with my neighbors. I sit in my room and my neighbors come in and I talk to them,” she said.“She plays 500 Rummy and scores 570 to 375 points. She's beaten me,” said Grau.“I do word finds. I'm pretty good at it,” said Cypher, who, after a career of educating young minds, isn't ready to put her own mind on idle.
