Worth County grad Bill Cottrell has had a love of canoeing from shortly after he graduated from Missouri and got his first teaching job, at Farmington (IA). It was there that he took 15 kids on a trip and discovered a passion for canoeing. He has made plenty of canoeing trips since then.
Cottrell was a graduate with the Class of 1971. His favorite Bull Reece story growing up was during one year, when he wanted to go out for track, but couldn’t come to practice because of farming chores. So Bull Reece made a deal with him – if he ran to school along the roads, which were five miles away from Grant City, then he could still do track. He ran the 3200 for Worth County and the Bull would needle him, asking him if he could pick up the pace just a little bit from the pace he ran to school with. If the Bull was not happy with him, he would mispronounce his name on purpose, which would really get his attention. “I had nothing but respect for him,” said Cottrell.
Bill graduated from the University of Missouri, got his first job out of school at Farmington, and taught there until 1978. He returned to Worth County, where he had an opportunity to start farming and he substitute taught at Worth County under Doyle Bounds. After the farm crisis hit, he got back into teaching and went to Scotland County, where he taught Agricultural Education from 1984 to 2006, when he retired.
Mr. Cottrell said that his goal was to provide kids with opportunities to succeed in agriculture. He said his greatest accomplishment was seeing his two sons get their American FFA Degrees. The family tradition continues, as his grandson recently went to State FFA as a freshman. He was also involved in Boy Scouts, and one of his sons became an Eagle Scout. He has two sons and five grandchildren.
He always had time to do canoeing, and one time took a group of 18 boy scouts canoeing. He has built two canoes; one of them wasn’t big enough, so he built one bigger.
For Bill, who has always been a workaholic, work was not over when he retired from teaching, and he took a job at Christiansen Farms, a hog farm, and later Seaboard Farms when they bought Christiansen out. His job was to ensure that the hogs did not get contagious diseases.
He said the biggest change was the willingness of kids to challenge themselves, which he said had gotten worse from the time he started to the time he finished teaching. He said it was not as bad in the rural schools.
For his accomplishments, State Rep. Mazzie Boyd successfully got a resolution passed in the Missouri House honoring him for his accomplishments. He plans to take a canoe trip down the Missouri River, starting on May 17th, for his 70th birthday. He plans to camp out all the way and make the entire 2,400 mile trip from Three Forks to St. Louis. Only seven to eight people do it successfully each year. The estimated time needed to make the trip is around 90 days.
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