RIO GRANDE — After 47 years of teaching, Charles Withee will retire this spring.

The Rio Grande resident and Pomeroy native taught for 46 years for the University of Rio Grande/Rio Grande Community College and one year at the former Rutland High School.

Withee has always loved teaching, and his love of education started when he was a student.

“I had some really great teachers when I was in school,” Withee said. Pomeroy High School teachers Forrest Ward and Asa Hoskins in particular had a big impact on him.

After high school, Withee enrolled in Rio Grande, where he was particularly impressed by Professor Francis Burdell.

“I thought Rio Grande was wonderful,” Withee said. He enjoyed his teachers and the other students, and felt very comfortable on campus.

After graduating in 1961 with a degree in math/science education, he taught for one year at Rutland High School before taking a teaching position at Rio Grande.

He enjoyed teaching on campus right from the beginning, and that love of teaching just continued to grow over the years. He has always relished the opportunity to work with the students, get to know them and have an impact on their lives by assisting them with their educations.

“Nothing in society really compares with what a college education does for a boy or a girl,” Withee said. “There is nothing else that can have that type of impact on their lives.”

Rio Grande Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Barbara Hatfield said that Withee is an outstanding professor who cares about his students and inspires them.

“When I first came to Rio Grande, it was to teach mathematics. Mr. Withee is one of the reasons that I took the job. From my first association with him, I saw a person who really cares about the students that he encounters. He not only taught math but he also provided guidance and inspiration to his students,“ Hatfield said. “Rarely do I walk through the Kidd Math and Science Center without seeing Mr. Withee counseling or working math problems a student. His presence will be missed in the math department at Rio Grande.”

Withee and his wife, Mary, live in the village of Rio Grande and have enjoyed living and working in a college community. They both were able to walk to work at times, because while Charles Withee worked for the university, Mary Withee worked for Rio Grande Elementary School.

One thing he loves about teaching at Rio Grande is the students, and how hard they work at their educations. Many of the Rio Grande students are pulling themselves up by the bootstraps and earning their educations so that they can improve their lives, Withee said.

“They are rich in other senses,” he added.

Over the years, Withee has become friends with countless former students and colleagues, but he has not been able to keep up with some of them as he would have liked to.

Now that he is retiring, Withee plans to get in touch with these friends, and reconnect with them. He also plans on being involved in the Rio Grande Alumni Association, and hopes to encourage other alumni to be involved in the college, attend campus events and support Rio Grande in different ways.

The Withees have already established a scholarship fund, the Withee Scholarship, in honor of their parents. Mary’s mother, Hazel Booth Duffy, graduated from Rio Grande in 1925. The scholarship helps area students attend Rio Grande each year, which makes Charles and Mary Withee very proud.

When he retires, Withee also plans to spend time with his two sons and two grandsons, who all live in the area, and with his father, Charles M. Withee, 90, who lives in Pomeroy.

“My dad is a big inspiration to anyone who will listen to him,” Withee said. He added that his father always stressed to him how important it was that he receive an education, and that message has made a big impact on his life.

Withee has stressed that importance with his own students, and helped them in countless ways. He also taught the children of many of his former students, and he has been able to see how a Rio Grande education has helped their families.

Charles Withee has been proud to be part of that Rio Grande education for the last 46 years, and Rio Grande students, faculty and staff have been even prouder to have him on campus.