The Life of Mr. Bob and Mrs. Mary Suphan 

Being a student at Kalāheo High School means more likely than not, struggling through school and homework, most notably math. So who did the students look to? It was none other than Mr. Bob and Mrs. Mary Suphan! The Suphans hold a 13-14 year career span at Kalāheo providing aid before, during, and after school. Beyond their time at Kalāheo, there is way more to their story.  It all started in the 1970s when Mrs. Mary first started teaching. 

“When I was in college, I spent my junior year overseas in Vienna, Austria,” she said. “And then when we got married, I said to Bob, you know, it's a great experience to live overseas and learn about a new culture”. 

“We went to the Marshall Islands, and we taught there for two and a half years. It was a wonderful time with the school and the kids,” said Mr. Bob. “But living there was not easy. Water was not in great supply. And then when we came back to the US, we worked in ESL, English as a Second Language. We worked for a company that taught it in schools, and we ran programs with them for 16 or 17 years.” 

Despite tensions between countries, the Suphans had a different worldview. Connecting with children from all across the world, they were able to see past divisions from a first-hand view. “We worked with kids from many cultures, many countries, and you can often read in the paper about countries that are bad, but we had kids from Iran. We had kids from China. We had kids from Russia. We had kids from Venezuela, and just about any place that you can imagine, and they were all good kids, and they all had hopes and dreams,” Mrs.Mary explained. 

“They all had fears that they tried to cope with, and they loved their families and their pets, and they're just like us. So strife in the world is not caused by people”. 

Through their experiences in teaching, not only at Kalāheo but around the world, the Suphans took away a key detail from various cultures throughout the years. “You learn a lot about their culture, but even more about your own. The assumptions that we made that other people don't. When I was an exchange student with the program America Field Service Array, we had a motto, it was walk together, talk together, all you people of the earth. And I wish that sentiment was true for everyone now.

But it was in 2008 when Mrs.Mary was already retired with 30 years in the field of education. Coming out of retirement she decided to reconnect with high schoolers having just moved to Hawaii. 

“I just applied to be an education assistant, because we had been working in education and retired. But after moving to Hawaii, we decided we still wanted to be involved with high school students”. 

After Mrs.Mary had applied to be an education assistant, Mr. Bob who also had experience working with students and was an administrator at one point, followed suit. “I was working at HPU and my job was becoming oriented to computers and not to students. After much encouragement from the head of the special education department, I finally went in and decided to take the job,” he said. 

“Having to fill out paperwork in the office, one of the employees at the time looked at me and said, I have one question, why would you ever want to do this?”. Despite it all, both Mr. Bob and Mrs.Mary explained their love and passion behind a job that was so near and dear to their hearts.  “It's an interesting time in their lives [the students] because you get to see them when they come in as little kids, and then hopefully you get to see them when they graduate as young adults, and that's an exciting thing.” 

Mr. Bob gave an analogy to describe how it felt to be someone in the students' lives for all those years. “The only sad thing about it is it's like reading a book, but you never get to the ending, you don't know what happens to most of these kids that you had, you got close to them and suddenly they're no longer there, and you don't know what happens to them,” he explained. 

When it came to their hard work and drive for their jobs, Mr. Bob gave insight to students.  “You do what you are supposed to do, you don't have to like it, but you do have to do what you're supposed to do. You do it because it has to be done,” he explained. 

There cannot be a number to describe the amount of hours the pair put into Kalāheo High School, from teaching to countless unpaid hours of volunteering such as photography and money handling at various sports games, the duo explained what they gained from doing what they loved.

“They were paid in non-monetary ways. To us, it's important to volunteer in order to give back to our community. I was there for 15 and a half plus years, 40 hours a week.  But we did things at night and on weekends, but we enjoyed it,” she said.