H-D-CAL industrial tech instructor returns to classroom after 20 years away from teaching

Doug Humrichouse can’t help but find humor in his return to the education field.

The new Hampton-Dumont-CAL High School Industrial Technologies instructor previously spent the last 20 years as an Applications Engineer for Westendorf Manufacturing in Onawa, Iowa before returning to the area in 2018 for a stint with Lemar Industries in Sheffield. Before that, Humrichouse was the industrial technology instructor at West Monona Community School District in Onawa.

After more than 20 years away from education, Humri-chouse decided to dip his toe back into education and acknowledges the unique timing of his decision.

“It hit me in New Teacher Orientation with three other new, young teachers that I’ve been out of the classroom just about their whole lives,” he said. “I sure picked an odd time to return to teaching during a pandemic and it’s going to be a very interesting school year.”

Humrichouse, a New Providence native and Eldora-New Providence grad, originally began his career in the architectural field, first working as a carpenter and concrete specialist for “a couple of years” in West Palm Beach County but moved back to Iowa as his then fiancé, Tina Humri-chouse, was pursuing a career as a teacher.

The two moved back to Central Iowa in 2018 to spend time with their parents and Tina acquired a position as a first-grade teacher at South Side Elementary in Hampton.

Humrichouse soon followed Tina into the H-D School District, rekindling his past life as an industrial technology instructor at the high school. Humrichouse said that while the scope of education has changed drastically since his time away from teaching, his 20-plus year career with problem solving and adapting to new technology will translate well to the position.

“My chief responsibility at Westendorf was solving problems, whether it was a problem with a CNC machine, robot or a production process or a design issue,” he said. “There is a special moment when you help someone solve a problem and they add a new skill to their ‘tool box.’”

He added that while he hasn’t been working with students, his position did require him to train and influence new, young members of the workforce.

“Even though I’ve been out of the classroom for 22 years I continued working with young people at my work; training young technicians, machine operators, and less experienced Engineers,” he said. “I was also very active with youth at our church teaching Sunday School and working with a rather large energetic weekly youth group.”

Humrichouse said he’s excited to use his expertise in problem solving and adapting to encourage students to pursue any career they desire. What they learn in his class and high school, he said, is the first step towards becoming the next generation of workers.

“I look forward to helping students develop problem solving skills and experiences that will prepare them for their challenging future careers,” he said. “The rapid growth and amazing changes coming through the development and implementation of new technology is almost mind-blowing when you consider it’s projected that half the jobs that these students are training for don’t even exist yet.

“We have to prepare them to be problem solvers... for problems that haven’t even been encountered yet,” he added.