The former Marine has thrown himself into his second career, teaching, and now will lead East Bay High as principal.
By LETITIA STEIN
Published March 5, 2004
GIBSONTON - Clyde Trathowen was in deep doo-doo his first day on the job. The sewage pipes were clogged at East Bay High School. Liquid waste puddled outside.
Another new principal might have cried.
Not the man who tells students to call him "Mr. T." The man who braved a year in Vietnam and served two decades in the Marines.
He stepped up to the principal's job at the 2,200-student Gibsonton high school at a time when many of his peers are retiring. Technically, he already has retired once. Running a high school offered a chance at a second youth.
"Kids keep me young," he said. "They are the future of the country - the youth. The more you can work with them, the better off you are."
In his new office, Trathowen hung awards bearing labels such as "Distinguished Flying Cross" and "Purple Heart." Pressed for details, Trathowen mumbled, "saved some lives, you know, stuff like that." His wife decorated the office.
Mrs. T also introduced him to the classroom. After Vietnam, Clyde stayed in the Marine Corps, while Nancy taught in schools from California to Oklahoma - wherever he was stationed.
Trathowen's final transfer led the family to MacDill Air Force Base. When he was mulling retirement options, Nancy suggested a second career in a classroom.
"He's really a big kid," Nancy said of her husband of 37 years. "He is full of life and very positive. He always puts the best face on everything."
Clyde picked high school. In 1988, he joined the staff at Bloomingdale High in Valrico. Six years later, he moved to Blake/Stewart Middle School as an assistant principal; he was named principal at Oak Grove/Memorial Middle School in 1999.
He has stayed in tune with teens - and in physical shape - as a referee for high school volleyball and basketball games.
"I like to walk away from every game and say I did my best, I played by best," he said. "And hopefully, I didn't cause a team to lose."
Most athletes have no idea that a principal has stepped out the court, Trathowen said. But when someone shows good sportsmanship he'll mention the athlete's principal by name - and tell the student that his principal should buy him an ice cream at lunch. Many follow through.
This season, he missed one basketball game - to attend the school board meeting when he was named East Bay High's new principal.
As principal, Trathowen will focus on easing the transition between middle school to high school, when learning can lag for a year. He also will emphasize reading skills.
When he hits snags at work - or a smelly puddle - Principal Trathowen can seek advice at the dinner table. Nancy, his wife, holds the same title at Mann Middle School.
"We don't always talk school," Clyde said. "But when you have a situation, it's kind of neat to have someone whose opinion you respect who can help you."
At their FishHawk home, Nancy jokes that Clyde can't retire before she does. But he's not worried. Running a school is as much work as fun.
"This is easy," he said with a touch of irony in his laugh. "All you've got to do is make the parents, the teachers and the kids happy, and everything goes along good."
MARATHONS: Trathowen counts two marathons he has run among the most intense experiences of his life: "It's you and the clock. You walk away from the finish line and it's like, Wow!"
BEST TIME: 2 hours, 57 minutes GETAWAY: The Trathowens head to a home on a lake in Polk County, where they read and relax.
HOW SCHOOLS ARE LIKE THE MILITARY: "It's reading people. Getting people to do things."
HOW SCHOOLS DIFFER FROM THE MILITARY: "In the military, there's not discussion. You tell someone to do something, they salute you smartly, and they do it," he said, with a laugh.
