Former C-Falls educator and Park ranger honored

A former Columbia Falls teacher, principal and Glacier National Park ranger recently was awarded for his outstanding career in public education.

Neal Wedum, who now lives in Choteau, taught at Columbia Falls Junior High School from 1981 to 1992 and was the school’s principal for five years after that. He was principal of the junior-senior high in Choteau for 12 years and served as a consultant for the Montana Office of Public Instruction for eight years, working to improve Native American schools.

Wedum also spent 18 years as a Glacier Park ranger, working as a backcountry ranger out of Two Medicine and a bear ranger. At 71, Wedum is a summer host at the Two Medicine Campground. He also continues to substitute teach in Choteau.

“I can’t get away from kids,” he said last week. “I substitute teach as much as I can. It keeps me young.”

Made in memory of an outstanding elementary principal who died tragically in an automobile accident, the Adrian Langstaff Award is the highest recognition bestowed by the School Administrators of Montana.

“Fairly often you see educators who let their students get away with labeling themselves solely as learners in hope of doing something later in life,” his peers said in their nomination letter. “As a principal, Neal held a deeper approach with his students by exposing their present abilities.”

Wedum said he was caught off-guard by the award.

“It was a total surprise,” he said.