The Cupertino Courier
Education
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Living History: Frank Helling, aka John Muir, talks to students at John Muir Elementary School during a celebration of the legendary naturalistŐs birthday.
John Muir students learn about school's namesake
By ERIN HUSSEY
A man with a full white beard, trademark hat and blue-button vest walks into a library full of students at John Muir Elementary School and immediately causes excitement.
"He's the real John Muir," a student exclaims.
But, while the man standing there looks like the legendary conservationist, he can't be. April 21 marked Muir's 169th birthday.
Frank Helling takes on Muir's persona when he visits schools.
"I haven't seen my face in 20 years," jokes Helling, who first started impersonating Muir in 1982.
"I was a teacher at Bullard Talent in Fresno, and I wanted my students to take care of the environment, and I thought John Muir would be the perfect person to get the message across."
When he arrived at the school, Helling, in a Scottish accent, told the children their teacher had been taken ill and that he was stepping in as their substitute teacher.
"I began telling them stories, and 15 minutes into it the beard began falling off," he says.
"When I finished, the whole beard was hanging by one sideburn over my shoulder. But the kids were so into it they didn't care."
In addition to the stories, Helling had the students write cards to the Sierra Club as well as plant a sequoia tree on campus.
"I planned on doing it just one time for fun," says Helling. "But the next year on the first day of school, the kids asked if John Muir was coming back."
Helling, who is an avid adventurer and naturalist himself, couldn't resist the invitation.
"I didn't want to deal with the fake beard, so I started growing one during Christmas vacation," says Helling. "It sort of became an annual event. Pretty soon I had parents calling me to ask if I could come and be John Muir for other events."
Since then Helling has performed various renditions of his "Visit with John Muir--The Scootcher of a Lifetime" at countless schools and universities, for environmental and civic groups such as the Sierra Club, in national parks and for special events throughout the United States. He h even performed a wedding as Muir.
"John's been really good to me," says Helling, who retired from teaching four years ago. On several occasions he has met and worked with almost all of Muir's living descendents.
"I did a thing for his great-great-great- granddaughter's first-grade class in San Diego about three or four years ago," Helling says. Two days prior to coming to John Muir Elementary on April 23, Helling celebrated Muir's birthday with his family at Muir's old house in Martinez.
When Helling isn't educating people on the life and works of Muir, he works as a seasonal ranger at Grant Grove, a position he has held for more than 17 years.
Jamie Scharton, a third-grade teacher at John Muir Elementary, invited Helling to the school.
"The school has been here for 49 years, and no one has bothered to research who our school was named after," says Scharton.
Last February, Scharton created a John Muir research project for her students. They wrote poems, timelines and a collaborative biography on the man known as the "greatest Californian" and the father of America's national parks system.
"Half the kids didn't even know he was a real person," says Scharton. "They were really excited to hear from 'John Muir.' "
As for Helling, he is off to his next journey as Muir.
"I just hope the students take an interest in the environment--maybe read a little bit about John Muir and maybe some of that will become a part of them," he says.
"We need more John Muirs out there."
