Douglas Iwen

     My name is Douglas Iwen and I started teaching High School Social Studies in Merrill in 1995.  I am a lifelong Merrill resident as were my parents and grandparents.  I attended Washington School, Franklin School, Merrill Junior High, and finally Merrill High School graduating in 1986. I attended UW-Marathon and then went on to UW-Stevens Point graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Sociology and Business. While attending both high school and college I worked at a local restaurant, while summers I worked at two different factories in town as well as in construction.  After college I worked for a business in our neighboring city of Wausau for a year and then went back to UW-Stevens Point to get my teaching license.  I later returned to UW-Stevens Point to get my Masters Degree. 

I love teaching in Merrill because it is a great community.  It has the small town feel with nice people while exhibiting a great combination of maintaining some great traditions while still being a progressive community.  Being a lifelong resident comes in handy when teaching history as I often have the opportunity to connect what I am teaching to our community's past in turn bringing relevance to my students.  I currently am the Junior Class Advisor, Student Council Advisor, and an advisor/coach for the Merrill High School Fishing Club.

I married my beautiful wife Pam, who is also a lifelong resident of Merrill as well, in 1991. She also teaches in the Merrill Area Public School District, at Washington Elementary School.  

We have two children Bailey and Emerson. We currently reside in the Town of Pine River in a house my wife and I built over a summer.  It appears that my kids are trying to start a hobby farm as we have 3 cats, a rabbit, 15 chickens, and a bearded dragon (if it were up to them we would have a zoo).  

We have been fortunate to have traveled as a family and with friends to many of the more famous landmarks in this country. 

My wife and I are big football fans, she is a Packers fan while I am a Dolphins fan (which hasn't worked out so well as of late).