School teacher inspires students, friends and family

Longtime harbor resident offers enthusiasm throughout career in the PSD

Paige Richmond

of the Gateway

Theresa Malich’s career in the Peninsula School District began 31 years ago on a fishing dock in Friday Harbor. Malich, who grew up in Gig Harbor and graduated from Peninsula High School in 1968, was working for the summer on her brother’s commercial fishing boat.

It was 1974, and she had just returned home after earning her teaching credentials at Western Washington University in Bellingham. She had applied for teaching jobs in the Peninsula School District, but since it was summertime, there were no teaching jobs available until the fall.

Rather than waiting, she decided to spend a few months working on a fishing boat.

One day, while docked in Friday Harbor, her sister-in-law, who had taken the ferry across the Puget Sound to find Malich, showed up with news: The Peninsula School District had an opening.

“I’ll never forget this day as long as I live,” Malich remembered.

The same day, she interviewed and was hired for a teaching position at Purdy Elementary School.

That job was the first of several in the PSD, where Malich inspired students and co-workers with her enthusiasm and dedication for teaching.

Those qualities led her lifelong friend and fellow teacher, Kristine Allen, to nominate Malich for an Alumni of Distinction Award.

“I don’t think there’s a more giving, successful human being than that woman,” Allen said. “She believes ... a child can do anything. She believes that anybody can do anything.”

Malich translated that belief into a long and successful career in the PSD, first working at Purdy, then Goodman Middle School, and finally at Henderson Bay High School before retiring last year. She taught both gifted and at-risk students using a program called “Future Problem Solving,” an interactive learning competition designed to help students think more creatively and productively about critical issues.

But despite her ability to help others learn, Malich did not think of herself as an ideal student when she was attending Peninsula High.

“Learning was not in my top priority,” she said. “It wasn’t until I became an adult learner that all of this made sense to me. When kids learn how they need to learn, it all connects. That’s huge.”

Allen said one of Malich’s greatest accomplishments as a teacher was her ability to teach at-risk students using Future Problem Solving, which was designed for gifted and advanced students.

Malich believed that her students at Henderson Bay were just as capable as any other students — except they had different ways of processing and understanding information.

“There are many, many bright kids ... that just refuse to do textbook learning,” she said. “(Future Problem Solving) is a great program for that.”

She found that when she applied textbook-free teaching to her students at HBHS, most of them excelled. Some even went on to compete in International Future Problem Solving Competitions, and one of her students placed seventh in a 2001 international contest.

Maria Fechko, a student of Malich’s at HBHS who wrote a letter of recommendation for the Alumni of Distinction Award, said Malich inspired her to be a better student.

“It was so nice knowing I had a trusting adult to confide in who liked and accepted me,” Fechko wrote. “I really started looking up to her.”

Malich also found applications in her own life for the program she taught. In 1986, she moved to Washington, D.C., when her husband, Randy Mueller, was offered a job there. She took a two-year hiatus from teaching and decided to challenge herself with a new career.

Malich completed a research project on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, as a joint project for the National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse and the American College of OB-GYN.

“I ended up having to use what I taught on a daily basis,” she said about applying Future Problem Solving skills.

Challenge has been a theme throughout Malich’s life. Outside of her teaching career, she also learned sign language and performed in a mime theater troupe called Sign & Mime.

For the past 17 years, Malich has been on the Gig Harbor Planning Commission, and for the past two years, she has been acting chairperson.

Last year, she began one of her biggest projects to date: Restoring the house in which she grew up, a 1980s two-story home on Harborview Drive.

Despite her personal accomplishments, Malich said she was “humbled and shocked” to be nominated for an Alumni of Distinction Award.

“Did I run a race? No. Did I write a book? No,” she said. “I’ve just been involved in my community with kids and trying to make a better world here as long as I can.”

Alumni of Distinction

This is the first in a series of four profiles for the inaugural Alumni of Distinction program.

The four Alumni of Distinction will be honored as part of the sixth annual Students of Distinction banquet, which will be held at 6:30 p.m. May 19 at Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church, 7700 Skansie Ave. NW in Gig Harbor.

Tickets are available at The Peninsula Gateway, 3555 Erickson St. in Gig Harbor.

Here’s a look at the scheduled alumni profiles:

Today: Theresa Malich

April 30: Lute Jerstad

May 7: Steve Olson

May 14: Doris Heritage

Reach Lifestyles Coordinator Paige Richmond at 853-9243 or by e-mail at paige.richmond@gateline.com.