Harger: Woodway’s Bruce Evans was proof of what good teachers can do
Aug 19, 2025, 7:17 AM | Updated: 9:00 am
We spend a lot of time talking about what’s broken in schools. Falling test scores. Burned-out teachers. Crowded classrooms.
Some of that is true. But here’s what’s also true: Most teachers care, and their stories rarely make the news. So let me take a point of personal privilege this morning.
Bruce Evans died this weekend. He spent more than 30 years at Woodway, then Edmonds-Woodway High after the schools merged.
He’s best remembered for leading the 1984 Woodway girls’ basketball team to a state championship in the 1980s. Earlier this year, he was inducted into the Washington State Girls Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame, with 387 career wins and 121 losses.
But that was only part of his story.
He was also an English teacher. A journalism teacher. And longtime advisor to the student papers, first the Woodway Gaelia, then the Edmonds-Woodway Wireless.
Woodway is where I first met him, in ninth-grade journalism class in 1989.
And his lessons stuck. You hear them here every morning. Get to the point. Lead with the most important part. Write for people, not yourself. Play it straight with news, and have some fun with commentary.
Mr. Evans had my back when I tried my hand at investigative reporting. I once filed a public disclosure request with the district that ruffled some feathers. Next thing I knew, the superintendent was calling my house at 6 a.m. My mom handed me the phone. Imagine being 16, half awake, unexpectedly talking to the superintendent before breakfast. But Mr. Evans stood behind me.
He also encouraged me to write opinion columns. That meant he had to share in the fallout with me. One week, I’d hit Governor Booth Gardner, a Democrat. The next week, President Bush. The following week? The lunch menu.
Not every column landed smoothly. I once questioned what was going on at the alternative high school, where students smoked and called teachers by their first names. He got an earful from his colleagues there. Another time, I called out homophobic remarks I’d heard in a class. I wrote that people who use slurs needed to “get a life.” That one got me a fist in the face in the hallway.
But through it all, Mr. Evans was there.
What he really offered was more than writing tips and a love of journalism. He was a positive male influence, something teenagers don’t always have enough of. Here was this teacher, showing me a trade I loved, correcting me when I got sloppy, and encouraging me when I got discouraged.
Mr. Evans retired from teaching the year I graduated in 1993 and moved to Arizona a couple of years after that. We stayed connected on Facebook. A few years ago, I had coffee with him near Phoenix. Three decades later, he was just as sharp. Just as encouraging. Just as engaged with his former students’ lives.
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A reminder for those who truly influence us
It was a life well lived. And a reminder. The people who shape us most may only be in our lives for a season. But their influence lasts forever.
We’ll keep talking about the problems in education. We should. But maybe we should also talk more about all the Mr. Evanses out there: The teachers who leave their mark long after graduation.
We’d love to hear your thoughts. Text us at (888) 973-5476, or join the chat on YouTube Live, @KIRONewsradio.
Charlie Harger is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories and commentaries here. Follow Charlie on X and email him here.
