After being one of the first teachers to be a part of Tualatin’s opening in 1992, Rick Osborn has spent the entirety of the last 30 years teaching in the English department. While he once taught sophomores, he now teaches mainly juniors and seniors, and he has been an essential part of the teaching community at TuHS. 

Since Osborn has been here since the beginning, he was able to help set the tone for the future of Tualatin. His favorite memories of his time working at the school are from those first few founding years. 

“I have a lot of really good memories from when the school opened,” Osborn said. “We had a really strong staff. I came from Tigard. I taught three years at Tigard, and I kind of felt like we had the best of the teachers migrate over from Tigard, and so it was a really strong staff,” Osborn said. “Opening a school is a really unique experience. We could kind of create a culture that we valued, and I think that there was a real – for a number of years – a real strong sense of community and pride in Tualatin High School.”

Over the span of his years here, it’s clear that he has built up countless friendships and relationships with fellow staff and students. Osborn shared that, over time, he has kept a wall of photos filled with memories and photos of his past students as well as of his own kids. The friendships he has made stood out as the things he will miss most. . 

“This wall used to be covered with pictures….It was kind of a tribute to students and the relationships that I’ve had, and some of those are still kind of in place,” Osborn explained.

On top of being an English teacher, Osborn began at TuHS as a basketball coach. He says that the mentality of coaching and athletics is something that he’s carried through on the academic side of things. Osborn also explained his motivation behind becoming an English teacher to begin with. 

“When I was in high school, I was a decent student, but I was the kind of student that had to work at it. Part of what I liked about teaching was that I felt that I could help students who it wasn’t necessarily natural for. They didn’t just roll out of bed doing well,” Osborn said. “And for a long time using my coaching, because I coached basketball for most of my career, I really believed you set high expectations and you set a high bar, and then you figure out how to get your students to reach that bar. I think for 20, 25 years that worked well.”

Osborn didn’t begin this particular year with a plan to retire. It was more about timing, he said. 

“I could’ve retired [earlier]. This is my 33rd year. I didn’t want last year to be my last year, because I felt it was just a disaster with online and then kind of a pseudo spring,” he said. “I started this year with just kind of an attitude that I wanted to see how it goes. I didn’t necessarily think that I would retire at the end of this year, but it just seemed like the right time.” 

The Wolf wishes Osborn the best of luck heading into retirement and appreciates his years of teaching, as well as all the ways he’s contributed to the TuHS community.