Museum at Central School names gallery after beloved teacher
<p>Photo of Dorothy Julia Schoknecht used for the sign indicating the gallery and thanking donors on June 19, at the Museum at Central School in Kalispell. (Brenda Ahearn/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
<p>A photograph of Dorothy Schoknecht from the 1930son display with hats and other personal items that belonged to her and her mother, Julia Neils Schoknecht on June 19, at the Museum at Central School in Kalispell. (Brenda Ahearn/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
Dorothy Schoknecht was one of the Flathead County teachers most students never forgot.
Her legacy lives on now in a tangible way at the Museum at Central School in Kalispell, where a classroom has been named in her honor.
Nearly six years ago — shortly after Schoknecht’s death at age 101 — the museum embarked on a campaign to raise $100,000 to name the beloved teacher’s former classroom in the northwest corner of the museum the Dorothy Schoknecht Gallery.
The former classroom houses the popular History of the Flathead Valley exhibit.
A grand opening of the Dorothy Schoknecht Gallery is planned from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Friday at the museum, 124 Second Ave. E. in Kalispell. The free event is open to the public.
Museum Director Gil Jordan said 318 donors contributed to the memorial effort. They’re named on a large plaque outside of the gallery named after Schoknecht.
Kalispell philanthropists Ray and Ladeine Thompson contributed about one third of the $100,000, Jordan said. Another third came from 14 donors who gave more than $1,000 each. The remaining one-third of donations came from donors giving smaller amounts; many of them were Schoknecht’s former students.
“We had some very aged people on fixed income giving” to the fundraising campaign, Jordan noted. “They really couldn’t afford to, but they so wanted to honor Dorothy.”
Semitool founder Ray Thompson was one of Schoknecht’s students, and she nurtured his interest in science.
Schoknecht taught at Bigfork High School in the mid-1930s and then taught biology and chemistry for 20 years at Flathead High School. Between the two jobs she spent some time teaching at Central School where the museum is now housed.
She was born in 1906 in Sauk Rapids, Minn., and moved with her family to Kalispell in 1912. Schoknecht was the valedictorian of Flathead County High School’s Class of 1925.
After she retired, she continued to teach German at Trinity Lutheran School.
Jordan said several former students sent notes along with their donations.
“Thank you for honoring her with the Dorothy Schoknecht Gallery,” wrote William Noble, who was president of Flathead High’s class of 1949. “Her excellent chemistry instruction and encouragement was instrumental in my attaining my Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree.”
“All girls should be so lucky to have a teacher like Dorothy to be a mentor,” Joyce Greve noted.
“She was the best science teacher we ever had. She made learning fun and worthwhile and will always be remembered as a friend and teacher,” Pat Babing Leibel and Carol Babing Watkins wrote.
Fundraising to name rooms within the Museum at Central School helps sustain the nonprofit facility. Central School opened in 1894 and served as a high school, junior high school and grade school before eventually providing classrooms for Flathead Valley Community College.
The building was boarded up and threatened with demolition in 1991, but the city of Kalispell renovated the structure at a cost of $2.4 million. Since late 1999, the city has leased the building to the Northwest Montana Historical Society for exhibits, performances and community meetings.
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.