For many former and current students of Kamiakin Junior High teacher Curtis Bates, Friday was a bitter sweet day. They – some with generations in attendance – along with many members of the school’s faculty packed the entrance to the lunch room for a retirement farewell for the special and very loyal teacher.

“I know he had billions of kids that he taught, but I felt like I was the only one,” said former student Karen Friend, who went through Bates’ class in 1977.

Bates fills a unique place in the hearts of those at the 35-year-old school and those who have graduated from it. It could be said that Bates is Kamiakin Junior High.

“I spent 36 years here,” said the 7th grade language arts and social studies teacher. “I started here and I finished here, which is great. I had chances to leave but I stayed because of students like you.”

Bates recalled seeing the vacant lot where Kamiakin Junior High currently stands and moving into the building in February of 1975.

“I was here before the school was built,” said Bates, who was hired a year before the school was built with a salary of just $8,000 a year.

Bates said that the school has changed a lot during his tenure at the school, including the addition of walls.

“We had an open concept here and it was very difficult to teach in that environment,” said Bates. “We had some of the lowest test scores. But as soon as they put up the walls the test scores went up. It is definitely a better school than when I started.”

Many would attribute that to Bates unique influence as a teacher and coach.

“He took a different view,” said Logan McCullum, who played football for Bates and is currently a junior at Juanita High School. “He isn’t the type of teacher to tell you to rely on others for help. He was the type of person that taught you to rely on yourself. Coming out of elementary that is a different concept for many kids and he helped you to understand it and use it. He was also one of the most fun teachers I have had.”

Bates’ coaching career at the school is legendary. In 1980 his girls track team won the league title and two years later his Cougar football team won the championship for the first time. He said that he has only missed one year of coaching in the 36 years at the school and plans to continue coaching.

Bates said he had the opportunity in 1983 to move on to Juanita High School but opted to stay at Kamiakin.

“I really like the people I have worked with here,” said Bates. “The staff means a lot to me.”

Bates has touched most of the lives that have passed through the hallways of the school, including current student Mary Carter and her mother Maria Carter, who was in one of Bates’ first classes at the school.

“He is pretty cool,” said Mary. “One of his sons is one of my friends. He has been teaching a long time and he is really awesome. Everybody loves him because he is one of the best teachers here.”

Over the years, Bates has become known for telling a good story – and his big afro hairdo from the early days. It is a look, although long gone, that gets him some attention even now from students who have seen pictures.

But the memories for Bates and others in the Kamiakin lunch room on Friday were just as thick as that afro.

“He always treated everyone really nicely no matter who it was,” said Friend, who recalled that Bates attended her wedding and father’s funeral.

For Theresa Reyes, it was the connection that Bates had with her four children.

“He wrote my son a letter of congratulations when he played in the All-State football game in high school,” said Reyes. “It is nice for him to keep up with kids after they have moved on but to do that four years after he graduated from junior high is amazing.”