Bruce Dahmen, the steady-handed principal of Madison Memorial High School, began every school day in the commons area, coffee cup in hand, greeting students. He’d stick around long enough to gently quiz the latecomers.
“What’s going on in your life?” he’d ask them. “Is there anything we can do to help you?”
Dahmen, who died Tuesday at age 61, treated every student as worthy of attention and respect, colleagues and friends said. It was a trait that endeared him to an age group not always enthralled with authority figures.
“Mr. Dahmen had this quote, ‘Make good decisions,’ and as high-schoolers, you wouldn’t believe in a million years we’d actually listen to an administrator,” said senior Jeremy Gartland, 17. “But we did, because we knew he wasn’t scolding us. He genuinely cared for us.”
Dahmen understood Memorial like few others — he started his career there as a student teacher in 1974 and never left. He served as a father figure to many students, and it was in that role that he and his wife, Peggi, an administrative assistant at Memorial, found themselves in Knoxville, Tenn., on Tuesday.