In Summertime, Biology Teacher Turns Into a Quick-Change Adventurer

During the school year, Daniel M. Cullinane is a popular and mild-mannered biology teacher at Loara High School in Anaheim.

But on summer break, he becomes a “climbing ranger” for the National Park Service and a veritable savior of reckless, careless and sometimes unthinking amateur mountain climbers on Mt. Rainier in Washington state.

“Climbers these days are being less careful and assume too much,” said Cullinane, 30, of Santa Ana, who left for his dangerous summer assignment at Mt. Rainier the same day that school vacation began. “They feel that if they get in trouble, someone will get them out. They may be right, but it’s a foolhardy assumption.”

He said Mt. Rainier is the most heavily glaciated mountain in the lower 48 states “and people are not used to them. Many climbers end up breaking legs and hips when they fall . . . and some of them die.”

Each year, 8,000 climbers try to scale the mountain, he said.

Despite the potential danger to himself, Cullinane sees his summer job as an enjoyable break from teaching in his biology classroom. “It’s nice to spend some time in the outdoors where you don’t wear a tie,” he said.

Cullinane has worked as a ranger in such prime locations as the Grand Canyon, Sequoia National Park and Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota, where he conducted tours of the caves.

In his spare time, he dabbles as an amateur taxidermist and brings the animals and birds he has stuffed to hang in his classroom and use as teaching devices and decorations.

Before working summers as a ranger and naturalist, he attempted to row a boat from Washington to Alaska. “But I only got halfway there and got tired and gave it up,” he said.

Cullinane now has his sights set on other summer adventures.

“I’d like to take a bike ride through Africa, and I’d like to sail a boat to the South Pacific and end up in Micronesia,” he said. “I like variety.” With his penchant for bike riding, he often bicycles to school; he also serves as adviser to the school Bike Club.

Despite his summer adventures and helping people in trouble, he declares that “first and foremost, I’m a biology teacher and that’s what I want to do. That’s my career.”

But when Cullinane talks about his summer break as a great-outdoors adventure, he likes to put everything into perspective.

“You know what’s depressing about working the summer as a ranger?” Cullinane said. “I just about make enough money to pay the taxes for the rest of the year.”

A balloon sent aloft from Wilson Elementary School in Costa Mesa no doubt was aimed at a younger crowd, but it landed in the shrubs at the Oasis Senior Citizen Center in Corona del Mar.

The message attached to the balloon read: “Take the Just Say No Pledge. Say no to illegal drugs, no to tobacco and no to alcohol.”

The telltale signs were the pizzas and the enormous submarine sandwich being sliced. Except for that, the affair looked just like any lavish wedding.

The stretch limousine was parked outside, photographers were taking pictures and a two-tiered wedding cake was ready to be cut. Ushers in tuxedos and bridesmaids in long gowns were excited as the bride and groom prepared to repeat their vows for a lifetime of togetherness.

It served to show students in Jean Mangan’s Preparation for Adult Living class at Bolsa Grande High School in Garden Grove the sobering economic realities of marriage and the costs leading up to it.

For instance, Mangan pointed out that the average price for a wedding in Orange County these days is $10,000, and the “father” of the bride was heard to say, “I told her to elope.”

All the participants were students, and the food, flowers and formal wear for the mock wedding, which was held in the school library, were donated by merchants, friends and relatives of those taking part in the learning experience.

During the yearlong class, students also learned about infant care, housing, food, employment, separation, divorce and death.

Acknowledgments--Terry Southfield of Cypress raised $606, the most among the 35 people who gathered pledges of $100 or more before sliding into a 575-gallon vat filled with strawberry gelatin. The Anaheim event, staged by the Leukemia Society of America, raised about $8,000. The sliders arrived dressed in outlandish outfits. One came as a raisin and another as an alligator, while a third was outfitted in red long johns, a helmet and goggles.