For the 41 years of her career, Dawn Ruf has taught the same grade (fourth) in the same town (Clancy). On May 28, as she surveyed Clancy School’s 39 fourth-graders, she could point out half a dozen whose parents she taught.
That day was one of the last times Ruf would gaze upon her students, who had gathered in her honor. After teaching two generations, Ruf decided to retire at the end of the school year, and her assistant teacher, Chelle Walker, was throwing her a surprise party with the fourth-graders as guests.
Walker gave Ruf a grocery bag full of mini saltine crackers and bags of caramel — Ruf’s favorites. In addition, the students gifted Ruf a wooden carving of Montana with all the students’ names on it, a flower in a pot signed by all the students, and a rock painted blue and yellow and featuring a bobcat and the number 41 in honor of Ruf’s alma mater, Montana State University, and her years of service.
