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Bellevue lost a familiar name this month when Dick Herringer, who taught in the Bellevue Public Schools for 32 years, died in a Missouri boating accident.
Herringer taught ninth-grade science and coached girls track at Logan Fontenelle Junior High School beginning in 1969. He followed the ninth-graders to Bellevue East when Logan became a middle school and taught and coached football there until retiring in 2001.
He and his wife, Sue, moved to Branson, Mo., last year.
Herringer, 63, was killed July 17 when the boat he was operating on Table Rock Lake struck timber from a submerged island, ejecting him.
Herringer’s body was found the next day, about 120 feet from where the accident occurred. He was not wearing a life jacket.
John Ott, who was principal of Logan Fontenelle during Herringer’s time there, called Herringer a man of character.
“He was a super nice guy, well-respected by peers and parents and staff,” Ott said. “He was a good teacher and a good person.”
Mike Purdy was the athletic director at Logan and East during Herringer’s coaching days. He said the girls track team at Logan flourished under Herringer’s leadership and estimated that the team won at least 10 freshman suburban conference championships.
“He just had a way with kids,” said Purdy, who retired in 2004.
“They gravitated to him. He was kind of a father figure, always giving them advice.”
Herringer was on the lake with his wife that evening, preparing for a bass fishing tournament the following day.
Fishing was Herringer’s passion, and it filled much of his free time. But his oldest son, Rob, of Lansing, Kan., said his father’s greatest source of pride were his students and athletes.
“He loved his teaching jobs, he loved the interactions with the students,” Rob Herringer said. “His student athletes saw him as a leader and a father figure, and they played their hearts out for him. That was his life more than the fishing thing.”
In addition to his wife and son, survivors include a daughter, Kelley Bell of Papillion; stepchildren Susan Coder, Tracy Cook and Amy Cruz, all of Omaha, Kelly Novotny of Arvada, Colo., and Don Cameron of New Albany, Ohio; and 18 grandchildren.
Services were held July 23 at Bellevue Memorial Chapel.
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