Retired Union Elementary School teacher John Spiker visited his old classroom in September, where he handed out pencils from the Retired Teachers Association.
Submitted photos
Even during the final days of his life, he was the same person dozens of former colleagues and hundreds of former students had grown to love.
In hospice care at Otterbein, retired Union Elementary School teacher John Spiker cracked jokes as a parade of people who knew him throughout his 45-year career as a fourth-grade teacher stopped by. They had just enough time to say goodbye to someone who had an undeniable influence on each of their lives.
Two of those people were Franklin Community School Corporation Superintendent David Clendening and assistant superintendent Brooke Worland, who had news for Spiker: the Union Elementary School library would be renamed Mr. John Spiker’s Media Center. On Dec. 10, four days after that visit, Spiker died at the age of 76.
“Mr. Spiker always had a good sense of humor,” Clendening said. “As we were leaving that day, he looked at Dr. Worland and said ‘I’m really glad that you came,’ and looked at me and said, ‘I’m not glad you’re here.’ He was such a good man and he gave all his heart and soul to Union Elementary.”
For many people who knew Spiker, his name was synonymous with Union Elementary School. Deb Brown-Nally, Franklin schools’ executive director of curriculum and instruction, met Spiker when she was a counselor at Union Elementary School in the 1990s.
“He truly cared and valued you as a person. John was a magnet; you wanted to be around him,” Brown-Nally said. “He was Union, everything about Union, John was a part of. It had a very, very special place in his heart.”
Spiker taught at the school until his retirement in 2013. During his almost half-century at Union, he was known as a history buff and a storyteller, said Cindy Mappes, who served as Union’s principal from 2001 to 2013.
“He loved teaching Indiana history; that was his passion,” she said. “He had a historical tour every year he set up for fourth graders. We went to southern Indiana and he was our tour guide. We went to Corydon, Abraham Lincoln’s home, Angel Mounds, it was such a fun time.”
Spiker lived for his students and colleagues, calling Union Elementary School “a little bit of paradise.” Once Mappes stepped foot in the school, built in 1928 among cornfields, she understood what he meant. Spiker did his best to project that paradise onto his students.
“He just had the biggest heart,” Mappes said. “Every Friday, we had popcorn and cookies. It started with a couple of kids, but not all of them could partake and he would buy it for his whole class. It meant a lot to the students.”
Wherever he went, Spiker made his presence felt, sometimes quite literally, said Brown-Nally said, whose office was on the opposite end of the hallway from Spiker’s classroom.
“When he would leave, it would shake the whole building,” she said. “One day, he was in his classroom and I was at the opposite end of the hall. He sneezed so loud I jumped straight out of my seat. It’s something the kids share stories about, how loud he could get in laughing or in sneezing.”
Amy Spiker was born when her brother was a freshman in college. John Spiker thought of the perfect prank to pull at Union that only they could pull off, Amy Spiker said.
“He took me to school with him one day and told them I was the new kid. All the kids thought I was a new student and we pretended that all morning. After lunch, he finally fessed up,” she said. “That’s just who he was. He enjoyed making people happy and seeing people smile and I think that’s just what he lived for.”
Spiker had a personality that made people want to be around him, said Jennifer Stone, who taught at Union Elementary School starting in 2000, when Spiker was her teaching partner.
“John was exactly what I needed. Coming out of college and making it so people want to hire you, I took myself a bit too seriously. John was like a breath of fresh air. It was good to see someone doing the job so long who still loved what they were doing,” Stone said.
The love he had for his students extended beyond the classroom, she said.
“He didn’t just care for you when you were sitting in his seat. He’ll say ‘hi’ at Kroger, he would come to your graduation, he would remember your parents and talk to them if he saw them at a restaurant,” Stone said. “John was never too busy, he would let us go over to his house and my daughter and I would fish in his pond. We remember him as more than a teacher.”
Union Elementary School staff members decided to name the media center after him because of his ability to tell stories, Principal Katie Smith said.
“He was such a great storyteller,” she said. “If you ever had the privilege of listening to his stories, you’d definitely be smiling and maybe chuckling.”
Although staff members haven’t finalized the date for the dedication yet, once it happens, it will solidify Spiker’s legacy at the school.
“There will never be another John Spiker,” Stone said. “When you have someone who’s a generational teacher who has taught the dad and the son and that kid’s son, (it creates) the connection those family members can have because they had John Spiker and remember things about him. He made Union fun.”
