THE FOLLOWING IS A NEWS-GAZETTE STORY BY JENNIFER BAILEY
DANVILLE — Parents know the patience and time needed to teach their teen safe driving practices. Now imagine the thousands of students who driver’s education instructors teach year after year. But the instructors also have a vehicle with a brake on the passenger side.
Danville High School Driver’s Education Instructor Gary Hettmansberger taught his last class last week and is retiring a second time from teaching. He’s been teaching Vermilion County students for 55 years.
He originally retired from Danville School District 118 in 2002 at age 55 and after 33 years of teaching but continued to teach before and after school and for summer school driver’s ed until last week.
The 77-year-old also is a District 118 alumnus, served as the captain of the track team in 1964 and 1965 and taught all but one of his years in Danville.
Hettmansberger taught elementary physical education his first year, 1969-1970 in East Lynn, which is now consolidated with Hoopeston.
He taught P.E. or social studies classes and always had driver’s education mixed in. He also did a little bit of coaching along the way for track, cross country and basketball.
He’s enjoyed teaching driver’s ed a few hours a day.
But he now has some back issues and is finally giving it up.
He would have three or four Behind the Wheel classes a day, with one or two students with him in the vehicle.
The first day, he takes students around the Roselawn and Denvale neighborhood areas. Then depending on their progress, he’ll do that for two to three times. They then move on to the open highway driving to Bismarck, or Georgetown on the four lanes. The interstate follows, in addition to backing up and alley turnarounds, parking between two cars in parking lots and pulling over to the curb to get within 12 inches without hitting the curb.
Hettmansberger graduated Eastern Illinois University as a P.E. major.
“I ran into a guy in P.E. classes who became a roommate,” he said.
The roommate was a P.E. major also, who was taking driver’s education as a minor.
Hettmansberger thought he’d do that too because a lot of P.E. teachers teach driver’s education too.
This summer, he had three classes a day, with 12 students, for Behind the Wheel. The students call him “Mr. Hetts.”
He loved his interactions with the students.
“The best thing I got to do as we’re driving, I got to talk to the kids and know them on a personal level,” Hettmansberger said.
He said they only drive 12 or 13 times, but he gets to know the students more. It kept him up to date with today’s students.
He enjoyed talking to the 15- and 16-year-olds about their life and their future.
Of course, as a driver’s education teacher, he has interesting stories to tell about driving experiences.
“In all the years of teaching driver’s ed, I only had two accidents in the driver’s ed car. It was not the student’s fault,” Hettmansberger said.
He said the most embarrassing one was when there was snow on the ground and the driver’s ed car was hit in the rear while stopped at a stop sign. When the other driver got out of the car, it was one of his former students, he said.
The driver was embarrassed to say the least.
Hettmansberger said his former student told the police officer, ‘I can’t believe I ran into my driver’s ed teacher.’
The driver’s ed vehicles have changed through the years too.
“We always had automatic transmissions,” he said.
During the last 20-30 years, the students are driving smaller cars, he said.
“They used to drive big old tank cars back in the 1960s,” he said.
Now, the smaller cars are easier to handle, he said.
And yes, the vehicles still have a brake on the floor on the passenger side for the instructor.
Hettmansberger uses it frequently.
“I’m always hovering over my brake just in case they don’t make it,” Hettmansberger said.
He said there’s probably not a day that he didn’t use it, to help the student stop or slow down.
In addition to no longer having the student interactions, Hettmansberger said he’ll miss the interactions with his fellow driver’s ed instructors. He’s taught alongside many.
“We all start in the office together and talk about our experiences,” he said, about keeping up with the younger instructors. He said another longtime instructor, Chuck Miller, retired two years ago.
In full retirement, Hettmansberger can’t get away from a car.
His wife, Jeannie, wants to travel more. Ever since he retired the first time, they would take February off to go to Florida. The Hettmansbergers live in Catlin.
They have two sons, Mark who is a school superintendent in Odell, and Chad, an accountant in Savoy.
The advice Hettmansberger always gives to new drivers is, “basically I want them to be relaxed.”
He said he tells them not to worry because he’ll help them if things “start to go wrong.” He can grab the wheel and has a brake too.
“I’m not going to let you get hurt,” he said he tells them.
He tells the students he will never yell at them.
He also tells new driver’s ed teachers to just relax.
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