COSTA MESA : Educators Honor Retired Teacher

Marvel Carlson, who taught first grade at Paularino Elementary School for almost three decades, could not understand why she should be singled out for an award.

“I am so surprised,” said Carlson, who was heralded recently by the Orange County Department of Education for “outstanding contributions to education,” along with three other educators.

“I was just doing my job,” said Carlson, who retired last June. “I enjoy kids and get a thrill out of seeing kids light up and learn.”

Carlson was a teacher in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District since 1963. But her roots, and to some degree her teaching style, extend back to rural Montana. Carlson grew up in a log house nestled in the mountains. She got her first teaching job at a one-room schoolhouse in 1944, where she was a faculty of one, teaching students in first through eighth grades. During 1952 and 1953, she taught on a Crow Indian reservation.

After her husband, who was also a teacher, became ill with multiple sclerosis, the family moved to California in 1959. After her husband died, she raised her two daughters, Sue and Cathy, while continuing to teach.

For 29 years at Paularino Elementary, she taught reading and mathematics, but her specialty was science. “I used to bring a lot of animals into the classroom,” she said. “These boys and girls living in an urban area are not allowed to have a pet . . . so we hatched chickens in the spring and hatched silkworms.”

She said a duckling hatched in the classroom later followed the students around the playground at recess.

Though she never burned out on teaching, Carlson said she has enjoyed retirement. She is a consummate square dancer and backpacker and loves to spend time with her five grandchildren.

Last summer, she and her second husband, Dean Ferrin, went on a seven-day, 70-mile hike through Yosemite National Park. “I was tired when I got done,” she said. “You have to carry a backpack full of rain gear and warm gear for the night.”

The couple plan a road trip to Alaska this summer with a group of friends.

“We are going to do some square dance along the way,” Carlson said.