A permanent remembrance of former principal Robert (Bob) Langbehn was dedicated Wednesday morning at Jackson Elementary, on what would have been his 91st birthday.
Langbehn passed away in 2016 and his remains were buried at the Iowa Veterans Cemetery, a fitting resting place for a Navy veteran of World War II. Now there will also be a resting place for students and staff at Jackson, not an eternal one – a bench in the school’s front yard – but a peaceful spot to pause and reflect. Actually, when the site is completed, it will serve as something of an outdoor library. Two Little Free Libraries are slated for installation in the near future. Accordingly, the bench features slats designed to resemble book spines. It was deliberately placed so that it’s visible right outside the principal’s office window.
“It’s really a piece of art that you can sit on,” was how Langbehn’s son Doug described the installation, commissioned by the family from Davenport woodworker Robert Fiedler.
Langbehn’s widow Marjorie, other family members and former colleagues were present for the dedication, along with current principal Cindy Wissler and last week’s crop of stars among the Jackson Stars (one student is selected from each classroom every week for special recognition based on exemplary behavior). Wissler, in fact, was a high school classmate of Lisa (Langbehn) Margulies, Bob’s daughter. They graduated from Hoover High in 1983, the year after “Mr. Langbehn,” as he was known during his principal days, arrived at Jackson.
“My dad saved the best for last,” Doug Langbehn told the assembled students and visitors. “Jackson was the last school where he was principal and it was his favorite.”
Other DMPS schools where Mr. Langbehn served included Smouse, Studebaker, Madison, Slinker (now Ruby Van Meter) and defunct buildings Clarkson, Dunlap, Scott and Washington.
When he retired in 1989 after 38 years of service, Langbehn began a second career, working as a doorkeeper for the Iowa Senate at the state capitol for 23 years.
An esteemed position in its own right that might have seemed anticlimactic to a man who devoted the best years of his life to truly special education.