Requiescat In Pace

By: Brandee Hayhurst

Times-News

ELON — Many teachers are good. A few are legendary. 

Olof Ribb’s portrait hangs in his old Latin classroom at Western Alamance High School over that very word. Underneath "legendary," the poster reads, "Quis in vita facimus referat infinitio." 

That’s Latin for: "What we do in life echoes throughout eternity." 

Ribb taught German and Latin at Western for 5 1/2 memorable years. The 59-year-old died Jan. 16 after a battle with cancer. 

"There are few people who make a lasting impression on me," said Principal Ann Davis. "Mr. Ribb was one of those." 

Davis received an e-mail from Ribb on Christmas Day, about three months after he learned he had cancer. The disease had spread and chemotherapy was no longer an option. He was going back to Minnesota to spend his final weeks with his sister, Judy Mortenson, a retired Hospice nurse. 

Davis and a few teachers gathered with Ribb at the school to say their goodbyes. Davis said Ribb kept teaching until winter break, despite frequent days missed for surgery or chemotherapy, "because he was worried about the kids." 

Ribb had no favorites, his students and friends say, because he cared for them all. On his last visit to an empty classroom, Ribb wrote "Vos amo omnes semper" to his students on the board: "I love you always." 

RIBB HAD NEVER SEEN a doctor or been to the hospital before falling ill. He was a noted health nut, a vegetarian and a fan of his juicer. 

He had moved to Greensboro in hopes of taking advantage of the bike paths and cultural events, but said he wanted to come back to Burlington so he could see his students more often. He had plans to take them to Paris and Madrid over spring break next month. 

"We didn’t just learn about Latin," said Bethany Jasper, one of Ribb’s students. "We got so much more skills for life out of that." 

Ribb’s students created a video for him and shipped it to Minnesota. Students and teachers also sent e-mails for his sister to read to him. 

"It was all really fast and it was a shock for us," Jasper said. "We didn’t get to say goodbye, but I think it would have been harder for him." 

Ribb died at his sister’s home in Bloomington, Minn. His sister and brother, Thomas, held a private interment for him in Kenmare, N.D. 

Now that he is gone, another Latin student, Nyssa Collins, has plans to sell "Ribbstrong" bracelets to raise money for Hospice. 

She said the $3 bracelets will be fuchsia, a tribute to the pink T-shirts Ribb ordered for the schools’ Latin club. Some of the boys didn’t like the idea of wearing pink, so he dubbed the color "manly fuchsia." 

"So he had kind of a dry sense of humor," Collins said. 

Mark Byers, a social studies teacher who often collaborated with Ribb for lesson plans on ancient Roman history, fondly remembers his peer playing music from "Gladiator" while students took their tests. He and Ribb referred to each other as the "curmudgeons" of the building. 

Ribb was intellectual and well-traveled, a man of the world who spent vacations in German cafes and loved to share photos with his students. He enjoyed tossing out quotes — from ancient Romans, popular movies or otherwise — to students and fellow teachers. 

"He never quoted movies to me, just German philosophers," Byers said fondly. 

Byers said he learned more about teaching from observing one day in Ribb’s classroom than from anyone else. Other teachers respected Ribb too, voting him the 2005-06 teacher of the year. 

Before leaving North Carolina, Ribb donated his books, TV and VCR to the school. 

See a Web site dedicated to the memory of Olof Ribb at www.olofribb.com