Not Your Usual Big Fish Story

Yet who would have guessed that a creation concocted by two 8^th grade guys 20-plus years ago would still be around virtually intact, part of the landscape, part of the lore, part of the culture of Collegiate’s Middle School?

 

We’re talking that big fish that’s resided in Charlie Blair’s office since 1997 when Jeff Dunnington and Kemper Blair (the latter Charlie’s elder son) deposited it there for lack of a better place to put it.

 

“Kemper and I probably spent two to three months making it,” said Dunnington, a 2001 Collegiate School graduate who serves as a teacher, coach, advisor, and 8^th grade level coordinator at his alma mater. “We probably should have done it in about a month, but we had so much fun that we found ways to stretch it out as long as we could.”

 

Kevin Kelley, who taught art at Collegiate for 25 years before he passed away December 10, 2012, after a courageous battle with cancer, provided the impetus for the project.

 

“He basically told us we could make whatever we wanted,” Dunnington recalled. “So we said, ‘Hey, why don’t we make a fish?’ We pitched the idea. Mr. Kelley said, ‘I don’t think you’re thinking big enough.’ He started giving us ideas about how we could make this big, large, grand fish.”

 

Kelley provided chicken wire for the frame, ingredients to make papier-mâché to cover the wire, cardboard for the scales, and a hot glue gun to hold the various parts together.

 

“We probably spend two to three weeks cutting out scales,” Dunnington said. “We’d never used a hot glue gun before. It ended up being one of the many ways we had fun.”

 

We’ll leave the rest to your imagination, but, suffice it to say, sometimes boys will be boys.

 

“Once we had the cardboard fish ready to go,” Dunnington continued, “it was time to spray-paint it. I remember that part vividly, because Mr. Kelley said, ‘All right, let’s go out in the woods.’”

 

With Kelley’s assistance, Dunnington and Blair adorned their masterpiece with shades of silver, black, and red.

 

We were just freestyling,” Blair said, “but as long as we were being productive, Mr. Kelley would let us run with the project. He was cool. He really fostered creativity.”

        

The paint finally dried, and the project was complete. Then, the question arose, What do we do with it now?

 

Of course. Take it to Charlie Blair’s office.

 

“I thought he’d put it in a closet,” Blair said. “I can’t believe my Dad kept it.”

 

But keep it, he did. For years, it hung from a hook in the ceiling to the right of his desk. More recently, it’s rested on the floor, leaning against a side wall, a familiar part of the décor.

 

There’s more, though. It’s a memory of an inspiring art teacher who conveyed energy and passion to each of his students, their talent and aptitude notwithstanding.

 

“Kemper and I had a spark of an idea,” Dunnington said. “Mr. Kelley was able to take that spark and make it into something very special. It was really much more him than us. We were just the hands that put it together. He kept pitching us new ideas. Everything he said was gold to me.

 

“Mr. Kelley was one of those teachers students wanted to be around. He had a very calm, easygoing demeanor. Nobody felt pressure in his classes. He was always telling stories about his life. He talked about motorcycles and even (his service in) Vietnam. He wasn’t trying to be cool. He wasn’t tooting his own horn. When he started talking, he would captivate us.

 

“In a place like Collegiate, in a middle school setting, we’re not necessarily teaching just history or math or art. We’re trying to teach kids what it is to be a person. Kevin did that about as well as anyone.”

   -- Weldon Bradshaw