After teaching at SFCC since 1968, Anthropology instructor Jerry O’Neal plans to retire after fall quarter of 2013.

O’Neal graduated from the University of Montana with a BA in Polyscience and an MA in Anthropology. He said that the person hired to replace him will likely have a PhD, and that there are somewhere in the realm of 70 to 80 applicants to fill the position.

“When I was in school, an MA was considered a teaching degree,” O’Neal said.”I wrote a thesis for it. A PhD was considered more of a research degree,”

O’Neal has the unusual distinction of having outlived a building here at SFCC; he has on his desk a photograph of him ceremonially breaking ground before the erection of the Social Sciences building. The building is now demolished, and was replaced by Sn’wy’mn, building 24.

His classes include Introduction to Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, Indians of North America and Stone Age Survival. The latter class is relatively unique, with hands-on learning of prehistoric skills like flintknapping and firestarting.

“I don’t know if the class will go on once I retire. One would think in the hiring of an anthropologist you look at their academic credentials,” O’Neal said. “someone that might have the skills to teach (Stone Age Survival) might not be paramount to hiring, so I’m billing this quarter as the last of the Spiders,”

Former SFCC student Gwen Blodgett took several of O’Neal’s classes.

“I first took his Cultural Anthropology class in 1993; after that I took Physical Anthropology and Stone Age Survival,” Blodgett said. “The classes I took from O’Neal instilled in me a lifelong love for Anthropology, and I later went on to take more classes elsewhere.

“Out of all the teachers that I’ve had, he’s one of my favorites, and I’ve had a lot of teachers.”

Sierra Schleufer, graduate of SFCC, took all of the classes taught by O’Neal that were available, and continues to drop in on the Stone Age class. She appreciated O’Neal’s teaching style as well as his knowledge on the subject.

“I felt like he was one of the few teachers that wanted to teach you,” Schleufer said. “something instead of using someone else’s rulebook,”

O’Neal, though he is retiring, said he may teach in an occasional capacity in the future, but that he did not plan on becoming a college instructor again.

“I love the academic world. The best thing about (SFCC) is that there have been ups and downs, but the one thing this place has done is let me teach,” O’Neal said. “Some interpret my strictness, or emphasis on academics, as that I don’t like them but I really want them to go on and succeed.

“I think it’s time to leave,” O’Neal said, “You don’t want to be the old- est and last dog to leave. It’s time to let someone else into the job and move on.”