By Sam Lenhart —
The University of Wisconsin–Stout Alumna of the week graduated before most of our grandparents were born. Alma S. Stahl, who will blow out 107 birthday candles on March 3, 2015 was part of the graduating class of 1930.
Stahl’s time at Stout has created lifelong relationships and a teaching career that spanned from graduation to her retirement in 1969.
Stahl was a part of the last group of teachers to be hired by the Detroit public school system before the Depression caused them to stop hiring teachers. Her first years working after graduation were spent teaching elementary school students home economics.
In 1936, Stahl took a break from teaching to get married and raise a family of her own. “Back then, when she graduated, she earned a lifetime, permanent teaching certificate and she went back to teaching in 1955,” explained Stahl’s daughter Debbie Wade.
Teaching was a passion for Stahl and her courses focused on sewing, tailoring, home nursing and childcare at Cass Technical High School, in downtown Detroit.
When Stahl wasn’t working or raising her family she often spent time with the lifelong friends she made during her time at Stout. One summer Stahl and her ‘gang’ took a road trip to Texas, even stopping at the Grand Canyon on their way.
From the late 1970s through the mid 1990s Stahl and her family would visit her old roommate in Viroqua, Wis. Their time spent there often involved “reminiscing late into the night,” said Wade.
People often tell you that the friends you make in college will last a lifetime and for Alma Stahl it could not have been more true. “The friends she made there were lifelong,” said Wade.