For 45 years, David Tidd has worked to get elementary school-aged children hooked on fishing.
Each of those years, Tidd has taken about 100 Fox C-6 School District children out to a nearby fishing hole, letting them experience an activity he’s enjoyed virtually his entire life.
Tidd, 80, of Hillsboro, who retired in 1995 after a 30-year teaching career, racked up 17 fishing trips during his teaching tenure and 28 more as a volunteer following his retirement.
He said he’s not sure if the fishing expedition he took students on earlier this month was his last.
“I’m getting up there, and this is hard on my body,” he said. “It’s a lot of work.”
He’s been known to have his mind changed for him.
In 2019, Fox district officials honored Tidd with a glass trophy commemorating his years of fishing trips.
“I was informed by everyone there that I wasn’t retiring (from coordinating fishing trips),” he said. “So I didn’t.”
Tidd said he enjoys sharing his love of nature with others.
“I love to fish, and I wanted to get that opportunity to the kids,” he said. “As a P.E. teacher, I wanted to give the kids a lifetime sport. They’re not going to play football or basketball or run track their whole lives. But they can golf, fish or hunt.”
A Crystal City native, Tidd said it was inevitable that he would spend his life at the business end of a rod and reel.
“I was born into a fishing family. I remember seeing a photo of me in a bassinette in a fishing boat between my brother and sister, with a towel to keep the sun out of my eyes. I was maybe 7 months old. My parents always took us out to fish. We would be gone (in the summer) for weeks at a time. We’d be riding along, and if there was a stream, we’d stop and fish.”
Tidd earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and physical education from Southeast Missouri State University in 1965 and immediately went to work teaching fifth grade in the Northwest R-1 School District.
“Then I heard there was a P.E. opening, and I put in for that, but they gave it to someone else who was a graduate,” he said. “But I heard there was a spot (in the Fox C-6 School District).”
After a year at Fox Elementary School, Tidd became the first P.E. teacher at the Fox district’s Rockport Heights Elementary School in Arnold when it opened in 1968. A few years into his new assignment, he added fishing to his curriculum that included hunter safety and archery.
“Before we went out (fishing), I would first have a talk with them about the basics, and then we’d have class on how to cast,” he said.
“I was the first person to teach fishing in a school in the state,” Tidd said. “The Conservation Department used me to figure out how to teach it at the elementary level.”
He said the first year, his classes took off for the Busch Wildlife Center (the August A. Busch Memorial Conservation Area in St. Charles).
“They let us use a nesting pond that was full of catfish. Everybody caught fish that day, a lot of fish, so there wasn’t time to clean them. They had to do that at home. So when we got back to school, I was handing the kids bags of fish with their names written on them from my truck in the parking lot. After that, we just had them throw the fish back.”
Nine years ago, Tidd was asked to add another expedition for fifth graders at the Fox district’s Hodge Elementary School in Imperial.
Both classes now put their poles in at the Oak Valley Golf Course and Resort, the old Teamsters Health and Medical Camp, in Pevely.
“They’ve been great to us,” Tidd said. “The lake is nice and wide, so the kids can spread out. And rather than a drive of an hour and 20 minutes there and another hour and 20 minutes back, it’s only 20 minutes away, so we get two hours more of fishing.”
Once the buses arrive at the lake, children choose their rods and reels from a selection of about 150 – Tidd spends the winter repairing and maintaining them – pair up and get down to business.
“Not everybody catches a fish, but they learn that there’s a difference between fishing and catching,” he said.
Prizes are given for the largest and smallest fish, most fish caught and first fish caught.
Managing 100 or so 10- and 11-year-olds isn’t the job for only one man, no matter his age, and Tidd enlists help from some of his friends.
Ron and Dianne Kramlich of Arnold said they have accompanied Tidd and his youthful charges for about six years.
“Dave was my JV football coach my freshman and sophomore years,” Ron said.
“Dave drew us in because we like to fish,” Dianne said. “We went to Canada with him a few times.”
Dianne said she’s been pleasantly surprised by how much she enjoys the fishing expeditions.
“I was shocked that you could get 100 fifth graders to behave so well. When Dave first asked us to do this, I figured it would be nothing but chaos. But it’s very well organized. And the kids are so pleasant. It’s great watching them being exposed to something they had never done before. And they really seem to enjoy it.”
During the Rockport Heights outing in mid-May, Tidd said, he was particularly impressed by a student’s enthusiasm over his first fishing trip.
“He went up and told his principal that this was the best day of his life and he never wanted it to end,” Tidd said.
He said he gave the student, Jeremy Davis, a tackle box.
“The day meant so much to him,” Tidd said.
He said he’s had a lot more good times than bad.
“In all the years, I’ve never had a kid end up in the lake, which is a surprise, really,” he said. “And I’ve never had a kid get a hook in them. I had one girl who got a hook caught in her hair, and a boy who got a hook caught in his pants. I tell them that getting a hook in you is painful, but it doesn’t hurt me a bit to take it out,” he joked. “They seem to have gotten the idea.”
Todd said schooling kids to fish teaches them a lot more than how to bait a hook.
“It gets them outside, away from their phones and TV and other screens,” he said. “They learn to be at peace, to be patient. They learn about nature and what a blessing it is.”
Tidd has a “side hobby” of repairing lawn mowers in Crystal City.
“That’s just to pay for my fishing trips,” he said.