About Ted Polk

Ted Polk was a great teacher.  He really cared about his students and brought out the best in them- both as people and as musicians.  The choir room was a hang-out, a home away from home for so many of my friends and me. I was in the Freshmen Girl's Choir under Peggy O'Neal in '76-'77 and Ted's Women's Select Choir the year after that. (My family moved from here to Washington State in '78 and choir was the thing I missed most.) Ted would, at some point in the school year, tell us the story of the giant and the little people (can't remember their names) and the "cold pricklies" and the "warm fuzzies".  The moral of the story was to be nice to people, to give them warm fuzzies & praise instead of cold pricklies & criticism.  He lived by that. He was a very warm, caring person who didn't mind telling his students how much he cared about them. "77-'78 was the year that three of our choir comrades were in fairly serious auto accidents. I remember how it hit him personally - his concern was so evident. I think we might have even prayed in class for our friends. He didn't care if it was politically incorrect. He also had a great sense of humor and loved a good joke, especially a practical joke - even if it was played on him. He had his sarcastic side (Which teacher doesn't?) but it was always tempered with a smile. I can still remember him looking right at me and saying "yes" but shaking his head "no", and vice versa. He made me play the part of a fried egg at the Lion Review one year! Imagine that...  He worked us hard in choir and our concerts reflected the time we spent on our music. We had to stand during our whole choir class (90 minutes?) because he wanted us to be able to make it through a concert without passing out. He allowed us to start a chapter of Fellowship of Christian Musicians at Turner and I think he wished he could be a part of what we were doing. We always ended our concerts with "The Lord Bless You and Keep You". I'm sure that was as much from his conviction as it was a Turner tradition. Maybe he started that tradition? I can't remember one student saying anything negative about Ted Polk. What an honor it is for C-FBISD to have named a school for him. I'd like to think that I carry part of Ted Polk around with me and that my students say the same things about me. 'Course, I'd get fired if I prayed out loud in class...

I loved getting to know more about Polk Middle School. I teach 7th grade math in a middle school in Vancouver, Washington. (Across the river from Portland, Oregon)

Thanks also for the trip down memory lane. I'm sad Ted Polk is gone but I know that there are others out there like me who still want to be like him and make him proud. He's left quite a legacy.

Jan. 22, 2004

I too, am a former student of Ted Polk from 1974-1978.  Not one person, with the exception of my single mom, influenced my life as much as TP.

He was like a father to me, and true blue, stand-up guy who loved his students.  In fact, he loved his job as Choral Director at Turner High.  My memories are flooded with his laughter, smiles, jokes, concerns and loving lessons on life.  My favorite memory surrounds a special facial expression that would simply glow all over us when he was pleased with something he heard as he directed a song.  His forehead would wrinkle up and his eyes would slightly enlarge, displaying a sparkle and a smile that spoke books to us.  I always held back those tears as best I could until the piece was over.  He generated a desire in us to excel and please him and those around us with a willingness out of solid love for the man and the music.

In my senior year, 77-78, he urged me to audition for the leading male role in "The Unsinkable Molly Brown".  Because of his belief in me and his openness to see me slay my personal dragons, I did so and took the role.  I never knew that would be the benchmark that propelled me into what I would do for a living.  Since that year, I have performed on stages from Texas to NY and back, a radio career, radio theater career, award-winning playwright, director, producer, actor and voice actor.  I continue in the arts for God and Ted.  I know if not for the giant heart of TP, I would be in prison today.  I will always remember the times given to me with a very unique hero, Ted Polk.

Alan Scott
(Alan Brown)
WDCX
Buffalo, NY