Rollie's rolling on: Auto tech teacher retiring after 33 years at WACC

STERLING – Rollie Conkling insists he isn’t a teacher or a relative of his students – even though it would be easy to mistake him for both.

A lifelong mechanic, the Rock Falls resident has been teaching automotive technology at Whiteside Area Career Center since 1974 – 33 years, because there are a couple of breaks in there.

At 69, he said he’s a couple of years away from teaching former students’ grandchildren. If it weren’t for the rock stars he’s taught this year, he wouldn’t have hemmed and hawed a bit over whether to retire after this year.

“If it was a terrible year, I really would’ve been ready to get out of here,” he said. “But the kids were just so good. I just happened to have a lot of true automotive students.”

The admiration is a two-way street.

“Nobody wants to disappoint Rollie,” 17-year-old Polo High School junior Jakob Simpson said. “He’s an expert, and you don’t want to disappoint your elders. Everybody respects him. He’s just that kind of person.”

“You can talk to as many kids as you want who’ve gone through that program, and the word you’d keep hearing is respect,” said Jerry Binder, the career center’s assistant director.

Conkling admits it’s getting harder to relate to kids. He sneers at the smartphone he’s got in the breast pocket of his shirt.

“When you’re younger, you relate to the kids better,” he said. “The kids and I rolled. But now it’s different. I’m older, and I know they look at me different.”

That said, he’s had quite a run as an instructor, overseer, confidant, whatever you want to call it. Just don’t say teacher.

“I’m a mechanic. That’s what I am. I don’t classify myself as a teacher,” he said. “I’m not sure why, but students have always gone my way. I don’t know what that is, but I could get them turned. I’ll tell you one thing: If you’re a teacher in a classroom, that’s one thing. When you’re in a shop putting a clutch in, that changes the relationship. It’s totally different. We’re just trying to accomplish something.”

After his service in the Air Force, he was working in a garage in 1973 when he caught wind that you could make $5 an hour in the lab at WACC.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he said, “that in the ‘70s, you could make $5 an hour.”

He worked in the lab for a year, then slid into teaching in 1974, until the college eliminated its coordinators – who worked with home schools to get kids jobs in the area – and those instructors came back to the center. In 1984, an autos instructor with seniority over Conkling bumped him out – for a few years. He got called back in 1988 and taught until 1995, when he moved to a small West Virginia town. He moved back in 1999 and worked at Turks Auto Electric in Sterling until the center called him back in 2000.

Sixteen years later, you’ll be able to find him at the shop, if you need him.

He’ll leave a void of skills the center should be able to replace. But the respect factor?

“Rollie’s a pro,” Binder said. “It’s the ultimate thing for teachers: These kids do not want to disappoint Rollie; they want to impress him. When you have that, you’ve got magic. A lot of people could learn a lot from Rollie. Kids want him to be proud of them.”