Barbara Lawlor, Nederland.   Tuesday, May 24, Bill Allen taught his last woodworking class. Wearing his crumpled hat, his baggy jeans held up by suspenders and walking slowly around the classroom, he gave advice and showed Nederland Middle Senior High School woodworking students how to use a tool, how to know when they’ve sanded enough. The spicy aroma of wood shavings filled the room as the students talked and laughed while they worked.

Breegan McClish, a freshman, smiled fondly at Bill, saying she has known him forever. She has never taken a woodworking class before, but her brother took it and encouraged her to do the same.

“It has been fun, tons of fun. Making the objects has been challenging but it was easy with the right instruction. Bill’s great and has tons of patience and helped me a lot. He used to be my bus driver when I was in elementary school and I won’t forget how nice he was. He is the one who has kept this shop going and even though he’s sick, he just keeps going every day.”

The class was busy making jewelry boxes with exquisitely colored hard wood that had been donated to the class. It was fine craftsmanship the students were learning, bringing out the rich shades of the wood grain. Back in the 80s, Bill had his own woodworking shop in Nederland, building cabinets for local residents.

Although Bill was instrumental in bringing the woodworking class back to the school, his stage 4 brain and lung cancer, although stable, is not going away, and he is running low on energy. He would love to continue teaching, but he understands that it isn’t safe and is becoming more than he can or should handle.

Bill Thibedeau co-taught the class, the two of them worked as partners: Thibedeau used his teaching skills and Allen shared his woodworking skills. It has been a labor of love for both of them, enabling students to partake in classes that don’t exist anywhere else in the district.

Thibedeau says, “We are just so fortunate that Bill was able to tap into this class and teach woodworking at the end of his career. He truly loves to teach and loves to share his knowledge. He started out by volunteering but we were able to find a way to pay him and we are grateful he has shared his time with us. He is responsible for rebuilding the program.”

For decades, Bill worked as a mountain school bus driver for the Boulder Valley School District, taking on the Ridge Road route and often driving the athletic teams to schools in the high country or out on the plains. For three years his son signed up for the woodworking class and being of that ilk, Bill went to the classroom to check out what the school had and what they were going to teach.

“There were tools that were old and dangerous and I decided to volunteer. After getting into teaching and becoming involved in the classroom, I talked to  David Shortridge, whose family’s foundation has funded other Nederland projects, and he ended up donating about $10,000 worth of tools with high quality safety devices.”

The new saws and drills are indispensable to the classroom, helping the students to be exact in their cutting and drilling, but more importantly, keeping them safe.

Kathy Cooper says Bill has been a kind and helpful teacher working with the special education students that like the hands-on approach of the class. “He loves to help these kids and give them stuff to do in the classroom, which helps him and them.”

NHS junior, Tyler Paul, says this was the first woodworking shop he has ever participated in. “We did interesting things in this class. Bill was always nice to me, even if I was really bad. He was always helpful in whatever we were doing and he knows a lot about woodworking. It won’t be as much fun without him, but I hope the class will continue.”

Bill is the maestro of woodworking says Bill Thibedeau. “He has an eye and feel for the heart of the wood. He knows how to fix and set the tools. Without him, this class would have been struggling.”

Thibedeau says the pending plan is to continue the class every other semester, with librarian Mark Mabbett teaching one of them.

One of this year’s projects was learning how to build bow saws. Once the saws were finished, Bill sent the kids out into the woods to cut down small trees, cut them into small, sanded logs and make three-legged stools. The whole process appealed to the students who prided themselves in making stools that didn’t wobble.

Bill says that the shop used to be one of the district’s favorite classes, but 20 years ago all school shops were closed and woodworking classes were offered only at the vo-tech center. NHS has become one of the only schools in the state that offer woodworking to its students.

On Tuesday, the students worked on completing their jewelry boxes, the last minute finishing steps. Bill gave a few words of advice and even drove home to get a tool they didn’t have in the shop.

“I am sure going to miss this,” says Bill. “I love sending the kids home with a completed project that they are proud of. But I’m feeling too sick to go on and it isn’t safe. It has been a year since my diagnosis and I am still walking around. I’ve had chemo and radiation and the cyberknife and am stable, whatever that means.”

Bill says that he plans on doing some camping, making some cabinets, and says that if he were in better health he would open his own shop again. He said the class wouldn’t have been as successful without the Shortridge Family Foundation donations and without assistance from Ace Hardware, who donated the small things that completed a project, the glue, the tape, the screws.

He thanked the students. “I enjoyed working with you and I am going to miss this class. It has been great. I am glad you are all leaving with 10 fingers.”

After saying goodbye to the students, Bill left the classroom saying, “They have such an appetite, are so hungry to do something tangible that isn’t about screens.”

Bill hopes the program will continue, that students will continue to have the opportunity to learn a fine skill, to know how to build something that can be used to sit on, to store things and to display with pride.

Those who participated in the class in the past three years know they learned from one of the best, and know that he taught them from years of experience, as well as from his heart.