Hanging up his hammer

At North Idaho College, Trade and Industry Division Chairman Walt Carlson emerges from his office to greet a reporter and gets sucked into a discussion with a couple of men over the ordering of materials. As the conversation continues, one of the men turns to the reporter.

“You’re with The Spokesman?”

“Yes.”

“Well, Walt’s a sadistic …” he laughs.

Call it turnabout is fair play.

Carlson “is a joker,” says Patty Leiser, who works with him. “He’s always telling jokes and playing.”

Carlson, who was named Boss of the Year in 2003, is retiring in July after 26 years with the college. He was hired as an instructor to start the college’s carpentry program in 1979 and became division chairman 16 years later.

“I started the program from scratch,” Carlson recalled. “We didn’t even have a hammer.”

As a result of his efforts to create hands-on, practical work experience for carpentry students, Carlson left his mark on Coeur d’Alene. “There’s almost no place in Coeur d’Alene you can drive and not see someplace he built – or golfed,” says Leiser.

Among the things the carpentry program students have built are the band shell at Coeur d’Alene City Park, the Really Big Raffle houses, the gazebo at the Third Street dock, the first house for Children’s Village (as well as assisting with the second house) and many smaller projects such as stairs and walkways on the campus itself.

“This division is a hands-on division. Where there’s some intense theory involved … there’s also the application … students like to build things. They don’t like to sit in classrooms,” he said.

Before hitting upon the Really Big Raffle House, a number of things had been tried to provide that practical experience for students. They’d solicit business from clients to build homes, they worked on Habitat for Humanity houses, and they built a house on spec at the edge of the campus, which they tried to auction off.

“Nobody was there to bid on the house the day of the auction,” Carlson recalled with a laugh.

He credits the North Idaho College Foundation with ensuring the success of the Really Big Raffle House. “They’re not afraid to advertise and publicize the project. Nothing ever comes good without some effort.”

Carlson himself attended NIC back in the 1960s, after a stint in the Navy. He met his future wife, Judy, at a dance at the student union. They married, and he went to work in construction as a commercial and residential carpenter, eventually owning his own business. He taught for a number of years at an apprenticeship program in Spokane. “I thought I had a gift for teaching,” he said.

NIC called him in 1979 and asked if he wanted to apply for an instructor position with the new carpentry program. He did and he got it. “I never regretted it,” he said.

Carpentry is more specialized than when he began, Carlson said. Carpenters did it all when he started in construction. Today, there are framers, roofers, siding contractors and cement form builders. “The industry does what it has to to stay competitive.”

Though he didn’t graduate from NIC, he did complete his education later, obtaining a bachelor’s in education and a master’s in technical education from the University of Idaho.

Golf is his hobby of choice and his office at NIC is filled with golf memorabilia. Carlson plans to continue golfing in retirement, but adds, “unless you go somewhere, you can only golf so much.” But he also wants to “go somewhere,” and plans to travel. He would like to volunteer and run for a board office, perhaps with the college or a school district.

In looking over his career, Carlson said he wouldn’t do anything different. “I think I’ve really had a good variety of work experience,” he said. “I feel very fortunate.”