Long after she was diagnosed with lung cancer, and through rounds of debilitating chemotherapy, Beth “Mama Cat” Nysewander kept fighting for life and for Dalton High School. Nysewander, who passed away Wednesday, was still attending to details of the recent 2007 homecoming celebration months before the game, even though she had officially retired in 2005 after 34 years at Dalton High. But her spirit for DHS extracurricular activities was only an outgrowth of her drive in the classroom, friends and family said Thursday. “
She loved teaching. She loved her students and her school. Her whole life was dedicated to the art of education,” her husband Bill said. “Her first home was school; her second home was where we lived. From teaching in the classroom to the extracurriculars, she wanted it to be both educational and fun. And she made it that way.”
Nysewander’s day usually started at about 6:30 a.m. and ended at 6:30 p.m., she wrote in a 2001 application for the Tom Jones Educator of the Year Award, an honor for which she was nominated several times.
“I get to school early and stay late so that students can come in for extra help, to do make-up work, to talk, or just to get a quick hug. I love the before- and after-school time because the students and I are together in one-on-one situations,” she said. “I am more than a teacher; I am an adviser, a confidante, and an adult friend. I tailor learning to fit my students ... their feelings, their special dreams. Each is different and needs special consideration ... Tailoring learning and making sure each day in the classroom is filled with some laughter are the truly important aspects of letting students know that I love them.”
Nysewander’s scholarship led her to be an interviewer for the Governor’s Honors summer program, a member of the Robert D. Cox Leadership and Vision Institute Millennium Class, English Department instructional supervisor, an executive board member of the Georgia Applied Communication Consortium, director of the first state Student Council Conference, teacher trainer for the state Applied Literature and Composition curriculum, school newspaper adviser, and an officer for teacher sorority Alpha Delta Kappa (ADK).
She taught the best and brightest Dalton students but also those whose future success was not as guaranteed. “She could have taught all AP (Advanced Placement) classes, but she wanted to watch out for at-risk students. She pioneered the Applied Communication program to teach real-world skills like interviewing and how to balance a checkbook — even though she never balanced her own,” daughter Alison Wester laughed. “She loved to connect with kids, and she didn’t try to change a one. She didn’t get down on their level, so everybody respected her. She gave us all the freedom to be who we are. So many came back to tell her, ‘You saw something in me I didn’t see in myself.’ She didn’t expect anything of us we couldn’t deliver.”
Nysewander’s daughters speak of the son of a coworker who she helped earn a GED when school just wasn’t for him. They recall the former student she taught to read who visited her hospital bedside. In his hands was the tattered copy of “Huckleberry Finn” from which he read his first words.
They note their parents took in Warren Mullings, the son of their nanny and housekeeper of Jamaican descent, who came from Brooklyn, N.Y., where he complained the schools “had no books.” “He asked, ‘Can I come live with you?’ And I told him to come on,” Bill Nysewander said. “Boy, (Beth) was tough on him. He just called me on Father’s Day.” Mullings completed his four years at Dalton High and has studied criminal justice with plans to become a police officer.
Of course, “Mama Cat” may have been best known for her “large and in charge” personality, all-encompassing school spirit, and her work for the Pep Club, Quarterback Club and Student Council. “She always had a way about her. She was sassy and would walk down the hall with her keys and bracelets jangling. She would put on a long blond wig at pep rallies and call herself ‘Mama Marla Maples,’” Wester said, referring to the Dalton native who went on to marry Donald Trump. “About 15 years ago at an ADK conference, the entertainment act didn’t show up. She rented a bee costume, stood up and did a comedy routine off the cuff.”
Bill Nysewander met his wife in her hometown of Alexandria, Ind., near where she had earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English education at Ball State University. Bill worked for Johns-Manville, the insulation and roofing company, and had the opportunity to transfer to Nashua, N.H., or go to work for Bob Shaw’s Star Finishing Co. in Dalton.
“I hate cold weather, and Beth had made such an impression during her interview with the superintendent, Charles Bowen, that I quit Johns-Manville and we came to Dalton almost 35 years ago,” Bill Nysewander said. “That was the smartest move we ever made. Beth picked Dalton, and the place has never been the same.” The Nysewanders have four daughters — Wester, Elizabeth Rakis, Margaret Nysewander and Melissa Nysewander — and three granddaughters.
Diane Gregory, the counseling office secretary at Dalton High, worked with Nysewander in recent years on her many projects and marveled at her phenomenal workload.
“She never really left. She substituted up until last school year. She just loved her job. She loved it. I’ve never met anyone with the work ethic and drive she had,” Gregory said. “I enjoyed helping her; she made it so much fun, you didn’t realize how hard you were working. She always had a protocol to follow, and I just rode along with her energy.”
And while Nysewander’s work was a vital cog in the Dalton High program, she was not stuck in her ways. “She was all about tradition, but she would change and grow,” Gregory said. “She did not object to change if it was for the better.” Rakis said her mother most valued the learning process she undertook with her students.
“Whether it was the newspaper or Shakespeare, she loved the relationships that developed from giving the gift of reading. She wanted to figure out a way to give them the love of learning,” Rakis said. “She made learning relevant to their lives, and they would talk about the stories from her classes for years.”
One former student, Mark W. King, a once rebellious member of the DHS Class of 1978, recently wrote a letter describing how Nysewander took him under her wing.
“You are the single brightest spot in the memories of my teen years ... From the very beginning, you accepted me for who I was. I could take correction and direction from you because I knew without the slightest hint of doubt just how much you cared,” King wrote. “There were times you communicated understanding and empathy without uttering a single word. And I knew this was the way you dealt with all of the students at the school. You are genuine right down to your bones.” King, now an attorney in Fresno, Calif., wrote his e-mail to Nysewander on Wednesday, the day she died. She never read it. But King wanted her to know he is working to pass on the lessons he learned from her.
“You were in my thoughts as a 13-year-old client sat across my desk from me. I tried to give him affirmation. I hoped that the genuine empathy I had for this young man would be evident to him,” he wrote. “He is a good kid who did something stupid. The state wants to make him a loser for life, but I think I can keep that from happening. I fervently hope I am right.”
Services for ‘Mama Cat’ Laura Beth Azimow Nysewander
• The family will receive friends at Love Funeral Home, 1402 N. Thornton Ave., from 3 until 7 p.m. today.
• Services will be Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Dalton First Presbyterian Church with the Rev. Tyler Downing and the Rev. Matt Evans officiating. Burial will be in West Hill Cemetery.
• The family requests flowers be omitted and memorials be made to the William E. and Beth Nysewander Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 1408, Attention: Diane Gregory, Dalton, GA 30722-1408.
Mrs. Beth "Mama Cat" Nysewander, 63, of Dalton, passed away Wednesday evening, Sept.r 26, 2007, at Hamilton Medical Center.
She was the daughter of the late Benjamin Azimon and Mary E. Williams.
Beth is survived by her husband, Bill Nysewander of Dalton; daughters and sons-in-law, Elizabeth and Anthony Rakis of New York, Margaret Nysewander and Tod Lawrence of Atlanta, Alison and Buzz Wester of Marietta, Melissa Nysewander and Shel Houghton of Baltimore, Md.; grandchildren, Elizabeth-Laura Rakis, Sophia Evi Rakis and SaraBeth Margaret Wester.
Services will be Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Dalton First Presbyterian Church with the Rev. Tyler Downing and the Rev. Matt Evans officiating.
Burial will be in West Hill Cemetery.
The family will receive friends at the Love Funeral Home today from 3 to 7 p.m.
The family requests flowers be omitted and memorials be made to the William E. and Beth A. Nysewander Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 1408, attention; Diane Gregory, Dalton, GA 30722-1408.
Words of comfort may be sent to the family at www.lovefuneralhomega.com.
Love Funeral Home, 1402 North Thornton Ave., Dalton is in charge of arrangements.
