Dave Spies

My passions are hiking, searching for wisdom in books, traveling to just about anywhere, and spending time with my wife, daughters,son, and four grandchildren.

I was born the fourth of six children in 1947 at the old Deaconess Hospital in Wenatchee, shortly after my mother and father and three older siblings arrived in Cashmere on a train from St. Paul Minnesota. My father found employment at the local sawmill where he worked until his passing when I was 12 years old. My mother was a homemaker, taking care of 6 children, including one who was born with cerebral palsy. I grew up in the Cashmere School system, graduating in 1965.  I graduated from Pacific Lutheran University with a BA in Psychology in 1969. I attended Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary for 6 months in Berkley California.

I returned to Washington State in 1970 and attended Central Washington State University where I received a degree in Early Childhood Education. I began my teaching career in 1972 at Grant Elementary in the East Wenatchee where I taught third and fourth grades until 1976 when Mary Ann, my wife and a kindergarten teacher, were invited to teach in Stavanger, Norway for two years. In 1978 we returned home with our first daughter (We were blessed with a twin boy and girl in 1980). I worked in the Benton City School District for 6 months and then returned in the fall of 1978 to begin teaching just about every subject at Sterling Middle School for 13 years. After taking librarian certification classes at Eastern Washington University, I became a librarian for the next 15 years at Sterling; and set up the new Clovis Point Middle School library until 2007 when I semi-retired.
 I was involved in the Olympics of the Mind / Odyssey of the Mind / Imagination Destination youth competitive problem-solving programs from 1981-2015. For 12 years I also worked with the Pacific Science Center offering youth science workshops/summer camps. I was also an environmental education workshop facilitator with Project Learning Tree for many years.
  From 1966 to 1974, I was fortunate to be part of the original Entiat Hotshot wildland firefighter crew during my college years and my first four years of teaching. With that experience and my educational background, I have helped run Columbia Breaks Fire Interpretive Center for 20 years, planning and supervising school visits to the site.
My passions are hiking, searching for wisdom in books, traveling to just about anywhere, and spending time with my wife, daughters, son, and four grandchildren.