"It was lots of work and lots of satisfaction," Jerry Holt said of his 58-year teaching career. Forty of those years were at South Barber High School in Kiowa, Kansas.

Earning his education degree at Northeastern at Talequah, Holt said, "I needed a job and interviewed at Sharon (Kansas)." Eighteen years later Holt was still teaching at Sharon when word came that that school would close. He heard of a job opening at South Barber and the rest, as they say, is history. Forty years later he is retiring from South Barber, known for years of teaching math and physics.

He had met his wife, Veda, of 5...