By COLLIN ZINK, Senior Reporter
After 23 years of being a biology professor at Northwestern, Dr. Steven Thompson has decided to retire.
Prior to Northwestern, Thompson was a graduate student assistant at Oklahoma State University, where he primarily taught labs. He was an adjunct instructor at the University of Central Oklahoma.
However, Thompson said Northwestern was his favorite school to teach at.
“I really enjoyed teaching here at Northwestern,” Thompson said. “I was wanting a position where I had the opportunity to teach a variety of different classes.”
Thompson said he thinks his greatest teaching accomplishment was when he had some general biology students switch their majors to biology. He also said that one of those students is now a doctor. He said he enjoyed meeting a variety of students.
One of the things Thompson said he will miss is the contact he had with students.
Thompson said he is retiring now because he has reached all the qualifications to do so.
After he retires, his immediate plan is to take a trip to the Pacific Northwest with his wife because he has never been there before.
He plans to keep living in Alva. Thompson also plans to do a lot more fishing and do some projects he has not had time to do because of teaching.
Thompson, who rides his bike to school, makes it an essential part of his day.
“I really enjoy riding my bike. My day feels incomplete if I don’t ride my bike,” Thompson said. “It’s a time that is really relaxing for me. A little bit of exercise gets me ready for the day, and it is really fun watching the changes of the season on my bike that I wouldn’t notice riding in a car.”
Thompson said his teaching career has gone by so fast, and he finds it hard to believe that he taught at Northwestern for more than 20 years.