Why a retired Anacortes teacher (and WWU alum) kept a piece of paper for more than 60 years

When Danny Beatty, a retired teacher from Anacortes, saw our stories during Teacher Appreciation Week, he was moved to tell his own — a teacher’s appreciation for his students.

Back in 1955, when he was not even halfway into his first year teaching at Anacortes High School at the tip of Fidalgo Island in northwest Washington, he received an Army draft notice. Upon hearing the news, his students put together a petition to delay the 22-year-old teacher’s draft until the end of the school year.