A professor who dressed up as characters to bring history to life, Don Taylor is a part of the history of Community College of Allegheny County South Campus.
When he retires on Tuesday after 57 years of teaching at the high school and college levels, he will have taught more than 10,000 students.
"It's time," said Taylor, 80, of Elizabeth Township. "I'm like the oak leaf that hung onto the branch after all the others fell off. It's better to leave when they still want you."
A Clairton High School graduate, Taylor began teaching in 1954. He taught at Clairton and at Penn State University from 1963 to 1967.
He has spent the past 44 years teaching history, political science and government at CCAC South, where he chaired the history department for 34 years.
His students say he inspired them by dressing up and delivering lectures that included little-known details about notable figures and events.
"He was far and away the most effective teacher I've ever had," recalled Pittsburgh lawyer Ira Weiss, solicitor for numerous Western Pennsylvania school districts, whom Taylor taught at Clairton. "He was totally committed to his students and teaching history."
Still animated when he talks about teaching, Taylor became nostalgic as he cleaned the office he has occupied for 20 years.
"I never ... said, 'I'm going to work,'" Taylor said. "I've said, 'I'm going to teach,' because although it was a labor, it was a labor of love."
He and 16 others started the community college campus in southern Allegheny County. Their effort began when they started teaching evening classes in the former West Mifflin Middle School, South. A year later, they moved to a condemned elementary school building in McKeesport, which they rented for $1.
They joined the CCAC system in 1967, and the college moved to Clairton Road in West Mifflin in 1973.
Taylor laughed as he recalled writing the college course catalog and keeping the descriptions "as generic as possible." He included the bare essentials of what students would learn in classes beyond his expertise, such as physics and economics. He wrote the curriculum for the history and political science courses.
Students call his essay tests "Taylor-made" because of their difficulty.
"He's a little bit harder than some other teachers, but I feel like I learn a lot from him," said Genesis Hammond-Schrock, 23, of West Mifflin, who liked her class with Taylor last semester so much that she signed up for three more classes with him this semester. "He has a way of connecting the history to everyday life."
Every semester for his lecture on the Old West and Gen. George Armstrong Custer, Taylor donned a Wyatt Earp Dodge City badge, a vest, cowboy boots and hat. He carried a replica Colt .45 Peacemaker.
"I want history to be interesting," he said. Before each class he would glance at a personal commandment posted above his desk: "Thou shalt not bore."
"Most people that teach want students to be knowledgeable about their subject, but I'm ambitious," Taylor said. "I hope that when many go out the door that they not only know history and political science and government, but sa,y 'I enjoyed it,' maybe for the first time."
Retirement, he said, will be like his typical weekend: "I'm going to have every day as a Saturday and Sunday. ... Going to the dentist, grocery shopping, live, enjoy life."
