The following article is reprinted from today's edition of the Connecticut Post. Don Crowell served as a guidance counselor, director of guidance, and acting headmaster at Roger Ludlowe High School (1959-1980), and as a guidance counselor at Fairfield and Warde high schools eight different times (1988-2008).FAIRFIELD — Don Crowell, a guidance counselor at Fairfield Warde High School, has retired more than 12 times. Every time Crowell, 80, bids farewell to a school here or in another part of the state, he eventually returns to work.
"I do love what I'm doing," Crowell said at his Warde office last week. "That's the major reason I say, 'Yes,' " to invitations to come out of retirement. Crowell's reluctance to permanently hang up the "Gone Fishin' " sign led Terry Kinsella, his wife, to give him little reminders that he's supposed to be retired.
There's a coffee mug on his desk that says "Work Just Say No" and a blue ribbon on his bulletin board that says "Retired." There's also a T-shirt that Kinsella made that says, "Don Crowell Retired Again," on the front — and that lists, on the back, all the years and school systems he's worked for since his first retirement in 1988.
"In almost every one of these some part of the staff gave me a retirement party," he said. The majority of times that Crowell "un-retired" he has worked as a guidance counselor, which has been his job for most of his 38 years in education.
But Crowell, who lives in Milford, didn't choose guidance counseling as a profession — it chose him. Crowell wanted to be a teacher, but was hired in 1950 as director of the audio and visual department at Washington High School in Massillon, Ohio, the school he graduated from just before World War II ended.
Crowell was responsible for audio and lighting at football games between Massillon and Canton high schools — no small potatoes in a town with 25,000 people and a 22,000-seat football stadium.
"I found kids were coming in and talking to me about their problems, which is what they do if they trust the adults in their world. I think, at that point, it was because I was the young guy on the staff. I think I related well to them," he said.
In 1953, Crowell left Washington High and moved to New London, where he had been stationed at the end of World War II, and taught social studies in middle school and history, psychology and economics in high school.
Crowell then worked at Roger Ludlowe High School, now called Fairfield Ludlowe High School, from 1959 to 1980. Crowell had gained his certification as a guidance counselor by then and worked at Ludlowe as a guidance counselor most of the time. But he also served as Ludlowe's director of guidance, assistant headmaster and acting headmaster.
Crowell's post-1988 guidance counseling in Fairfield has been at Warde High and Fairfield High School, which was the name of Warde High before the town opened a second high school. Since 1988, he's worked at the Melville Avenue school eight different times.
Crowell doesn't think his age hinders his ability to relate to students. He said students view anyone over 40 years old as old — and don't take note of whether they're over 40 by one or several decades.
"It isn't age. It isn't the sex of the counselor, male or female," Crowell said of how guidance counselors connect with their students. "It's, 'Does he or she really seem to be listening to what I'm saying? And not just listening, but giving me respect, providing me with respect, when I walk into the office.' "
Students also pick up on whether guidance counselors enjoy what they do, and they connect to those who do, Crowell said.
Crowell said he also can easily strike up a conversation, which he attributes to growing up in the Midwest, and has traveled to many countries, which helps him connect to Fairfield students who are first- or second-generation Americans.
"Eighty years old and snow-white hair does not prevent kids from relating to him," Kinsella said. "He hasn't lost it."
Crowell said students today have a lot of pressure on them because they're part of the largest graduating classes in a long time and the competition to get into the school of their choice is harder. But Crowell said that pressure is unnecessary because a lot of good colleges exist. Crowell said it's always been important to him to connect with students who are having a hard time in high school.
"School counselors are really trained to deal with emotional issues more than the problem of which college should I apply to. It's much more on the emotional," Crowell said. "But we also know as school counselors that we're not school psychologists. We also know what our limitations are."
Crowell retired in 1988 as director of guidance at Pomperaug High School in the Region 15 school district, which includes Middlebury and Southbury. After that, he returned to work as a guidance counselor or administrator at Region 15, Cooperative Educational Services in Trumbull, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield High and Warde High.
"Some of these jobs were not every day, but most of them were. I suddenly no longer was retired. I was working every day," Crowell said.
Crowell thinks his current stint at Warde High will end in a couple of weeks when the school district hires a new guidance counselor, and he doesn't see himself coming out of retirement again.
But Kinsella probably heard that before. The T-shirt she made ends with Crowell's 13th post-retirement job, which was in 2005 at Warde High — and she didn't leave room to fit this year's assignment.
Please sign the AWHS Guest Book.
Visit the Andrew Warde High School Gift Shop.
Watch the AWHS 1976 vintage "film."
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