Karen and Bill Anderson are fixtures in the area's schools.

Bill, currently assistant principal at Columbia Falls Junior High and Karen, currently teaching fourth and sixth grade reading and Spanish at Deer Park School, will retire at the end of the school year.

The couple met in Polson at a dance when Karen was just 14. She recalls that night like it happened yesterday.

"I remember writing in my journal 'Bill Anderson danced with me four times,'" Karen said. "After he danced with me, we've been together since."

The Andersons moved to Missoula for a time, where Karen gave birth to their first child, Pam. Shortly after the family moved to Columbus, Ga., where Bill was stationed at Fort Benning.

"I've had to good fortune to have dual careers," Bill said. "While doing 47 years of education, I've done 28 years of military service."

The Anderson trio moved to Fort Carson, Colo. The couple's second daughter, Tricia, came along in Colorado.

Bill was accepted to optometry school as he neared the end of his active military service. He considered it, but eventually chose a career in education instead.

"I've always admired the medical profession. But I wouldn't trade my life," Bill said. "It's been very complimentary to raising a family and allows a direct tie-in to my children."

The growing family wanted to return to Montana and so moved to the little town of Westby in 1962. Karen taught fourth grade for time until the birth of their third daughter, Lynnette. Bill taught seventh and eighth grades, high school social studies, physical education, science and math. He coached football, basketball and track. He worked in the lunch room and drove a bus to sporting events.

"All people in education should start out somewhere like that," Bill said of the experience. "You learn so much about what is involved in education. You get immersed in every phase of it.

"It was probably the best place I could have started. It gave me a variety of experience. Nobody handed me a teacher's text book and said 'OK, teach English all day.' You taught everything."

After three years in Westby, the Andersons moved 60 miles west to Scobey, where Bill taught high school social studies and coached football and cross country.

"It was a very nice community again," Bill said. "Teachers were well-respected."

In 1967, the family moved to Libby, which was undergoing a population boom while the dam was being built. Bill taught social studies, history, psychology and physical education in a school that was still under construction to accommodate burgeoning class sizes. Bill remembers the exciting field trips he took his students on, to places like the ghost town of Bannock and to various medical facilities.

Fourth daughter Jill came along in Libby.

Karen taught a remedial reading program and substituted for title programs while in Libby. She earned a degree in education from the University of Montana in 1978.

IN 1982, Bill moved to Columbia Falls ahead of Karen to become assistant principal and athletic director at Columbia Falls High School. Karen followed in 1985 and began teaching at Deer Park School.

The administration at Deer Park learned it would have to shut down its sixth, seventh and eighth grades if did not provide a counselor for those students. Karen volunteered for the task and spent four years driving back and forth between Columbia Falls and Havre to earn a master's degree in education counseling.

"I felt I'd accomplished something for the school," she said.

Karen has also taught kindergarten, second and third grades. She said she has enjoyed a rewarding career.

"I never thought I would enjoy teaching kindergarten, but I really enjoyed teaching them to read," she said.

She so enjoyed many of her students she has tucked away little notes and drawings she received from students. Karen smiles while recalling these pieces of memorabilia.

She also enjoys it when former students return to visit and recognize the effort Karen put into teaching them.

BILL BECAME principal at CFHS in 1988. After 15 years, he moved to the junior high. He has spent a total of 27 in Columbia Falls.

The move to junior high was a challenge at first, but Bill stepped up to the task.

"I'd been with high school all my career," he said. "To move to a junior high was a change, an adaptation to a younger clientele. Here it's nice. You can see the early development of their education and personalities.

"It's been very rewarding, a very nice place to work. Hour to hour, (the students are) amazing, what they can do, how they can change, and adapt and grow before your eyes."

Like his wife, Bill appreciates visits from former students.

"Teaching is not what you do at the moment," he said. "It's the things you don't even know that you're doing, that you hear about later. Students come back (to visit). Good or bad, you do something that people remember."

THE ANDERSONS are not so much retiring as making time for their sundry activities. Their family has always been an athletic, recreation-oriented family. Bill and Karen plan to visit their grand children, kayak, boat, ski and snowboard. Karen rollerblades. Bill runs in marathons and he has completed 19 to date.

The end of their careers is not easy, but the Andersons view the transition as a new beginning.

"We feel almost guilty leaving education," Bill said. "The word retire is not one we like to have in our vocabulary."