Trinity's mainstay stepping down

After Ken Holste graduated from Concordia University in Seward, Neb., in 1969, he took his first teaching position at Trinity Lutheran School in Kalispell.

It turned out to be his only teaching position: For Holste, now 65, this year marked retirement after 43 years with the school.

1969 was also the height of the space race when Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the moon. Before getting the job at Trinity, Holste stayed the summer at his family farm in Kansas and remembered watching the moon landing with fascination.

“You know, the thing you read about in history books,” Holste said, laughing. “I remember watching them land the man on the moon in late July 1969 thinking, ‘So that’s what the moon really looks like?’ That was pretty cool.”

Holste was raised in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod as the second-oldest of six siblings, so it was natural for him to teach in a faith-based school. He said one of the joys of working at Trinity was being able live his faith while providing students with a strong academic and moral foundation in all areas of learning.

“It’s a large part of why we’re here, being able to offer the families we serve a Christ-based education. Students come out academically prepared with a good foundation to tackle life,” Holste said.

It was not long before the summer of 1969 ended that Holste, who had an education degree in math and science, was placed at Trinity.

The church had a system of placing staffers in schools where particular services were needed and his were needed in Kalispell as a kindergarten through eighth-grade science teacher. Over the years as the school grew, Holste transitioned to teaching math and science in grades five through eight.

“My plan was to be a high school teacher. Well, the Lord had other plans,” Holste said. “I loaded all my possessions in my dad’s 1961 Chevy and headed toward Montana. I had never been to this part of the country before.”

In a decade when only pieces of the Interstate highway system were completed, Holste took two-way roads through many small towns and oil fields when he reached Montana.

“As I topped a hill at Polson, I could see Flathead Lake,” Holste said, and he was awestruck. “It was one of those moments where you pull over and say, ‘Am I in the right spot?’”

Trinity Lutheran School also held another magnificent moment for Holste as the place where he met the woman who would become his wife. Carol taught kindergarten down the hall from his classroom and worked as the church secretary. Also from Kansas, the two discovered they had grown up roughly 250 miles apart.

“It only took about 1,500 miles for us to meet,” Holste said.

In the 43 years that Holste has taught science and math, Pluto has been declassified from ninth planet in the solar system to plutoid; the periodic table has gained several synthetic elements; and last year, Holste’s old overhead projector was wheeled out in exchange for a digital projector mounted on the ceiling.

What hasn’t changed is the need to learn the three “R’s,” Holste said: reading, writing and arithmetic.

“You still need to know how to read, calculate, think and gather information,” Holste said.

Holste has had other responsibilities during his tenure as a Trinity Lutheran Camp counselor over summer breaks and coach and athletic director from 1969 to 2010.

In the 1970s he helped organize an eighth-grade basketball tournament called Trinity Tourney, an event that is still going strong.

In 1984, Holste earned a master’s degree in classroom education. For a short period he served as an interim principal. Although opportunities to work as an administrator came up, Holste knew he wanted to stay in the classroom teaching.

In retirement, Holste looks forward to unscheduled days and spending time with his wife and grandchildren. Before retirement starts, though, Holste has to pack up his personal belongings and erase the last pre-algebra lesson of the year from the whiteboard.

“I was teaching a lot of second generations, time to get out before the third generation starts showing up,” Holste said with a smile.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.