Robison was a secretary with 'spunk'

Nancy Robison has worked behind the Columbia Falls Junior High front desk for 34 years. Soon, she’ll say good-bye to the phone, the problems, smiles and stories its given over the years.

She brought laughter and joy to the school, said principal Dave Wick, who worked with her for 18 years.

She was an advisor to the students and had a special place for those with special needs, he said.

Robison has had the opportunity to see many local kids grow up and some of them return to the same school. She recalled that Kent Blair was a student at the junior high when she was working there and now he’s a teacher there. His son starts school there next year.

Tom Berquist has worked with Robison for 25 years.

He recalled that when he met her she was “somebody that had a lot of spunk.” And she still has a lot of fire, he said.

She used to work at the junior high when it was in the building that Glacier Gateway School is in now. Her old office is now a kitchen at the elementary school.

At that time she lived nearby in an apartment. She recalled walking out her front door one day and running into three junior high boys smoking cigarettes in front of her apartment.

“I didn’t know they were there and they didn’t know it was my apartment,” she said. They ended up suspended from school.

One of the main reasons why she stayed so many years is because her job wasn’t routine.

“You never know what is going to happen,” Robison said.

She keeps track of attendance and talks with the students. She answers nearly 100 phone calls a day. She passes on messages from parents and handles parent’s dropping off items. The craziest items she has seen are art projects for Dave Ritter’s class.

“It’s been fun,” she said. She started working at the junior high when her youngest son went to kindergarten.

She never had a day that she didn’t want to go to work, she said. She will miss the students and her coworkers.

“It’s going to be hard, but I’m ready,” she said. Her husband Ron is retired from the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. and now works as a house painter.

They plan to visit family in Seattle and travel to Nashville for the first time.

They’ll spend more time on their sailboat on Flathead Lake and with their two grandchildren, who live locally. She’ll also continue making quilts, starting with a four-day quilting class in Salt Lake City in September.

She is looking forward to turning off her alarm clock.

Her last day is June 17.