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RateResident honored for cleaning Vernon for 32 years
By Colin Devries
Hudson-Catskill Newspapers
ATHENS — Henry Yost never expected to have his own street in the village — but after 32 years of stewardship, he’s deserved it.
Village officials presented 87-year-old Yost with a certificate of appreciation and his very own “Adopt-A-Street” sign with his name proudly displayed upon it.
The sign will be installed on Vernon Street where Yost has diligently cleaned and picked up litter on the street since he retired from teaching 32 years ago.
“This man has dedicated his life to this community,” said Village Trustee Tom Sopris as he presented Yost with the sign.
“I never expected anything like this,” Yost said.
It all started, Yost said, when he went to Albany Medical Center 32 years ago for a two-day checkup. He explained to the doctor that his family had a history of heart problems — he has lost five brothers to heart attacks — and that he was a school teacher.
The doctor was nearly floored when Yost said he had been a school teacher for the past 28 years — teaching being renowned as a stressful profession. Yost, though, argues that there was a time when teaching wasn’t all that stressful.
The doctor told him to “walk, walk, walk” and to consider giving up teaching. He took the doctors recommendations and retired from teaching at Coxsackie-Athens High School in 1977.
“He was quite a teacher,” said resident and former student Larry Styles.
Yost, who was a tool and dye maker for General Electric before World War II, taught industrial arts and mechanical drawing at the high school.
Before joining the district, he made precision machinery during WWII and went to college on the G.I. Bill. He enrolled in the New York State Teacher’s College at Oswego, where he was provided housing for only $15 a month. While in college, he met his future wife and was married after his first year.
Soon after graduation, he settled into the Athens community and became a highly-involved member of the community and a high school teacher that was revered by his students.
He joked about how strict he was during class and how he sometimes had more girls than boys in his mechanical drawing class because the boys knew he was strict.
One day, Yost recalled, he had a confrontation with a former Athens police chief who had as a student. Just when Yost thought things would get a little hairy when he saw him — remembering how much he disciplined the man in school — the chief simply walked up to him and said, “You remember that time you paddled me... I had it coming.”
Yost also monitored the gymnasium at the current village hall for many years, allowing neighborhood kids to use it for recreation.
He would even allow the children from the neighborhood come to his home and watch television.
“I was one of the first people on the block to have a TV,” he recalled.
Though most of the those kids have since grown up and started families of their own, Yost continues walking Vernon Street and caring for the community he’s dedicated himself to for over 60 years.
To reach reporter Colin DeVries please call, 518-943-2100 ext. 3325, or e-mail, cdevries@thedailymail.net.
Village officials presented 87-year-old Yost with a certificate of appreciation and his very own “Adopt-A-Street” sign with his name proudly displayed upon it.
The sign will be installed on Vernon Street where Yost has diligently cleaned and picked up litter on the street since he retired from teaching 32 years ago.
“This man has dedicated his life to this community,” said Village Trustee Tom Sopris as he presented Yost with the sign.
“I never expected anything like this,” Yost said.
It all started, Yost said, when he went to Albany Medical Center 32 years ago for a two-day checkup. He explained to the doctor that his family had a history of heart problems — he has lost five brothers to heart attacks — and that he was a school teacher.
The doctor was nearly floored when Yost said he had been a school teacher for the past 28 years — teaching being renowned as a stressful profession. Yost, though, argues that there was a time when teaching wasn’t all that stressful.
The doctor told him to “walk, walk, walk” and to consider giving up teaching. He took the doctors recommendations and retired from teaching at Coxsackie-Athens High School in 1977.
“He was quite a teacher,” said resident and former student Larry Styles.
Yost, who was a tool and dye maker for General Electric before World War II, taught industrial arts and mechanical drawing at the high school.
Before joining the district, he made precision machinery during WWII and went to college on the G.I. Bill. He enrolled in the New York State Teacher’s College at Oswego, where he was provided housing for only $15 a month. While in college, he met his future wife and was married after his first year.
Soon after graduation, he settled into the Athens community and became a highly-involved member of the community and a high school teacher that was revered by his students.
He joked about how strict he was during class and how he sometimes had more girls than boys in his mechanical drawing class because the boys knew he was strict.
One day, Yost recalled, he had a confrontation with a former Athens police chief who had as a student. Just when Yost thought things would get a little hairy when he saw him — remembering how much he disciplined the man in school — the chief simply walked up to him and said, “You remember that time you paddled me... I had it coming.”
Yost also monitored the gymnasium at the current village hall for many years, allowing neighborhood kids to use it for recreation.
He would even allow the children from the neighborhood come to his home and watch television.
“I was one of the first people on the block to have a TV,” he recalled.
Though most of the those kids have since grown up and started families of their own, Yost continues walking Vernon Street and caring for the community he’s dedicated himself to for over 60 years.
To reach reporter Colin DeVries please call, 518-943-2100 ext. 3325, or e-mail, cdevries@thedailymail.net.
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