GREC says good-bye to a legend — Mr. McVety

Craig Bakay | Jun 12, 2019

It’s almost hard to imagine Granite Ridge Education Centre (and its predecessor Sharbot Lake High School) without Mr. McVety.

But that’s the way it’s going to be once the spring semester of 2019 finally lets out for summer vacation.

And last Friday night, his contemporaries and co-workers gathered in the cafetorium to send him off to retirement in style (sprinkled with healthy doses of lunacy).

But how else would you say good-bye to a legendary performer?

Mr. Randy McVety has been a teacher for “almost 30 years” according to a slide show featuring some of the best moments of his youth provided by his family that led off the “McVety Minute” talk-show format good-bye.

Ben Moser served as talk show host on the McVety Minute, with sidekick Wade Leonard and the band “Three People Not Named Randy.”

First guest on the talk show was Liz Steele-Drew who confided she’d worked with McVety for 26 years.

“It had its moments,” she said. “But for the most part, they’ve been awesome.

“Randy did try to kill me a couple of times, though.”

“Randy carries every assignment he’s ever written in his little brown bag,” said Moser. “He actually invented the Dewey Decimal System (actually Melvil Dewey in 1876).

“Eight of his fingers have never touched a typewriter keyboard (and) he loses it twice a year just to prove to the kids he still has it.”

He was thanked by the IT department for “creating enough work for two techs — without you, our computers and projectors would be working just fine.”

He was remembered for legendary field trips, showing movies like Bad Santa, Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay and Quest for Fire, and cited as a legend in the world of car pooling as well.

As far as retirement plans, McVety told The News he wasn’t going to be one of those teachers who just can’t seem to give it up by accepting numerous supply teaching assignments.

He did say, however, that he planned to remain active in the school sporting community, continuing with one of his passions — coaching soccer.