In Loving Memory of

Norman Arnold Sande

of Edmonton
Mar 26, 1937 - Aug 21, 2017

 

 

Norm Sande Although Norm and I had very different starts in life, he being born in Rocky Mountain House and I, eight years earlier in Madagascar, we had amazingly parallel lives. He was involved with the army while I was with the navy. We both became social studies teachers, and I knew even less than he did about Physics. We both taught in the same high school, got our Masters Degrees in Education and ended up as vice principals at Harry Ainlay High School. It took me eight years longer to get there than he did as I had spent 15 years attending a missionary children?s boarding school in Madagascar where my father was a Lutheran missionary, before returning to Canada in 1945. He was a brilliant man, had a sardonic sense of humor, a real ?Cool Hand Luke? when everyone was else was at panic stations when ?the sky was falling.? Although many of the staff may not have thought so, Leon Rebryna, the principal ran a very tight but effective school. At our administrative meetings, whenever Leon was riled and exasperated, I would react in anger while Norm, never losing his temper, would gently harpoon Leon with common sense, leaving him struggling with malapropisms, such as ?Never turned a pencil,? ?firing with all four barrels,? which Norm would quietly record on a piece of paper and would pass to me to add to the long record of ``Leonisms.? Norm had a far different way of handling students who had seriously misbehaved and who needed firm correction. I would lose my temper, blast the miscreants, and tell then never to darken my door again or all hell would break lose. In sharp contrast Norm would calmly look at the offender as if he were examining a strange bacillus under a microscope, then make some penetrating observations that made the reprobate realize that his excuses were nonsense and that he had been thinking without the power of thought. When I was told that Norm had cancer I prayed for him every day and, assuming that he would soon be moving to St. Joseph?s Auxiliary Hospital where I would go and visit him, I did not go to the University Hospital, something I deeply regret. If you are fortunate in life you will come across people who make an indelible impression on and a crucial contribution to you own life and well-being. Norm was such a person and as I am rapidly running out my own allotted days, I trust that I will soon be able to tell him so myself. May God hold us in the hollow of His hand and bless us all. Leif Stolee
posted by Leif Stolee : Norm was my teaching colleague : Aug 26, 2017