With great fondness and sincere gratitude for their many years of service, we say goodbye to the following two faculty members in June. Mr. Karl Zweerink and Mr. Harold Houghton are retiring after long and stellar careers at Maggie Walker Governor’s School.
Circa 2002 and 2022
Harold Houghton taught Physics at Maggie Walker since it was the Governor’s School (GSGIS), also known as August 1993. Back in those days, we occupied 1/2 of Richmond’s Thomas Jefferson HS.
As one of our longest-serving faculty members, Harold has known every director of this program and lived through all of the school’s history. He was witness to the MW building dedication with then-Mayor Tim Kaine in the late ’90s and moved with the rest of the faculty and students into our current home in 2001. A few days later the nation experienced 9/11.
Each year Harold’s classes famously conduct their egg drop test from the school rooftop. If one took physics at MLWGS, there’s a good chance you participated in this test.
Harold is a member of the American Association of Physics Teachers and led a team of our students in competition as members of the U.S. Physics Team. He has sponsored many student clubs here, notably as a former TSA sponsor, the current Pugwash Club sponsor, and the Newtowne Tutoring Project where approximately 100 Maggie Walker students offer their time and tutoring skills to community elementary and middle school students.
“Harold is a legendary teacher at Maggie Walker, said school director, Dr. Bob Lowerre. “His love for students as well as his content makes him one of the most respected teachers on campus. His dedication to the Governor’s School from its very beginning has been an inspiration to me and I will miss the pearls of wisdom that he drops both in classrooms and in faculty meetings. One of my favorite Harold quotes can be found in a video that we have used during Future Dragon Days. He said ‘the grass is not greener anywhere else.’ He will be sorely missed by all of us and I wish him the absolute best in his retirement.”
Harold is planning to enjoy life with his wife Deborah, and monitoring their sons Nathan, James, Ben, and Jonathan (who are all MLWGS alumni!) busy lives.
Circa 2003 and 2022
Joining the team in August 2000, Karl has been a valuable member of the MLWGS family for twenty-two years, first serving as a class counselor followed by the Counseling Department Chair in August 2005. Karl’s work involved meeting and assisting every student that has come through this school during his tenure, that’s approximately 4,000 of them! He has served as a caring mentor to all, extending to student and staff families, births and deaths, day/night, even many years after graduation too. Everyone who has entered these halls has benefited from his guidance.
Karl has served as a chaperone on more than one international student/class travel; i.e., China, Costa Rica, and Greece/Italy this summer. If we needed extra support, Karl was there. His commitment also extended to student clubs/organizations as he was a long-time co-sponsor of the GSA Alliance, and while it was brief, Karl was also a co-sponsor of the Outdoors Club.
“I have truly enjoyed working with Karl over the past five years that I have been at Maggie Walker,” said Dr. Lowerre. “His compassion for students and their families as they make the transition from 8th to 9th grade at Maggie Walker is remarkable. His decades of institutional knowledge will be very hard to replace. I wish him nothing but the absolute best in his retirement. He has truly earned it!”
Karl has a wonderful family in his supportive wife Laurel, and children Kevin, Nicholas, and Elena and will be focusing on them.
As an avid bicycle rider, we won’t be surprised to see Karl here and there on the streets of Richmond dodging traffic and pedestrians on his way.
Kindness will be his legacy…A Walker Way principle!
