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Custodian and teacher Michael Good looks back on 65 years in education

PHOTO COURTESY EAST MARSHALL SCHOOLS FACEBOOK Michael “Mick” Good is shown at the East Marshall Elementary School in Laurel, where he has worked as a custodian for the past 12 years. In all, he’s spent almost 65 years in the educational realm.

LAUREL — With his trademark frock of white hair and Elvis-like sideburns, East Marshall Elementary Custodian Michael “Mick” Good has been one of the most venerable figures in the area as he looks to mark over 65 years in education in 2023.

A Marshall County native, Good moved to Ferguson in 1951 after his family bounced around the Marshalltown region.

“I’ve lived in Ferguson longer than anybody in the town,” Good said. “I went to the Ferguson school. I thought it was the biggest school in the world.”

It’s here in Ferguson where Good would land his first job in education in 1957, helping out the school’s custodian as a high school senior.

After three years, Ferguson would consolidate with Le Grand and Dunbar in 1960, forming the LDF school district with the Ferguson school building becoming the district’s elementary school.

Though Good remained at Ferguson through the consolidation, continuing his work as a custodian, Principal Clyde Newell coaxed him to consider a pathway to college.

“He said, ‘You don’t want to do this the rest of your life.’ So, he took me down to Northeast Missouri State to look it over,” Good said. “I did go to college, but I came home every week and helped my folks at the school they took over, and I worked there in the summer all the time.”

With a newly earned degree in hand, Good would teach at Baxter Schools for the next 18 years, teaching a long list of social studies subjects including geography, world history, and sociology.

He also coached the oft-remembered 6v6 women’s basketball teams alongside baseball and softball.

But the familiar pull of home tugged at him after he spent nearly two decades working in Baxter, and with ailing parents in Ferguson, Good decided to return to the cozy town to resume his duties as a custodian at his previously acquainted elementary school.

“I always call Ferguson [Elementary] heaven,” Good said. “I told the teachers and the associates, ‘You’re here one year, you get a halo. For your two year, you get your wings.’ I tell them now when I see them I say, ‘Well I see you got your halo and wings you must have been in Ferguson two years.’ We had a lot of fun.”

Good reminisced about one week in particular, which he considers a special standout even now all of these years later.

“We had a principal that allowed us to do what they call ‘Rocking through the Decades,’ teaching the kids what different music was,” Good said. “I’ve been a big Elvis fan. They let me have an Elvis week.”

Elvis was a hit with the students and staff alike, and no one generated more fanfare than Good himself, who surprised the school with a carefully crafted impersonation of The King.

“I bought a lot of Elvis memorabilia and gave it away, and then I had a jumpsuit I put on at noontime and dyed my hair black,” Good said. “They thought I was a celebrity. I was signing autographs.”

However, the one off performance had lasting effects for the beloved custodian.

“I used Just For Men,” Good said with a laugh. “That was a mistake because you can’t get that out… It took a while for that to wash out. Those are really good memories there.”

Yet, with all of the memories there, Good acknowledges one of his greatest challenges on the job and most painful recollections was when the Ferguson school was shut down in 2007.

“The hardest thing is when we had to close Ferguson,” Good said. “It was pretty much like my own house. I worked in there so much. I figured I probably cleaned it around 10,000 times…

That was a lot of garbage and sweeping… We fought to keep it open but we couldn’t. We were too small.”

Although he technically retired following the closing of Ferguson, Good could not stay away from the educational sphere for long, and he quickly began filling in as a custodian at East Marshall Elementary in Laurel, where he remains to this day.

“It’s hard work. It’s really hard work,” Good said, adding that he often starts his day at 3 a.m. “[But] I’ve been on so much that there’s nothing to come up that I can’t handle around the school.”

Whether it be students getting sick, mopping floors and vacuuming carpets, or performing routine maintenance on equipment and facilities, Good says the students and the significant role he plays at the school are what keep him coming back each day.

“When you get into your 80s, and you’re still needed, that’s important,” he said. “A lot of times, older people here, they don’t pay much attention to. But they still need me down there. So, I help them quite a bit. The kids are great. It’s nice when they want to talk to you and you gotta give them time.”

As for plans to truly retire and leave the school work behind, Good wasn’t sure he would ever willingly give up his daily duties.

“I don’t want to but you know if I’d have to, you never know,” Good said, “I would miss it… [Education] is a good area where you can help people, and get to know a lot of people.”

In terms of the legacy he hopes to leave in the area, Good was thoughtful when describing how those he has encountered over the years might remember him.

“I hope they can say that I helped them and that I was a good friend,” he said.

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Contact Nick Baur at 641-753-6611 or nbaur@timesrepublican.com.

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