News
Aufforth retires as wildlife instructor at DCB
Scott Wagar
05/08/2012
After 40 years of instructing wildlife management at Dakota College at Bottineau, Al Aufforth has made the decision to retire from his job at the college.
“Don’t get me wrong, I still love instructing, but I decided to retire because I still want to do something else in life,” said Aufforth, who is 65 years old. “I’m going to keep my five month job with the Department of Agriculture as the state’s bee inspector, and spend the rest of my time hunting and fishing.”
In December of 1972, Aufforth accepted his position with Dakota College at Bottineau.
Over the past four decades, he has seen over 2,000 students graduate from the wildlife management program. Over 80 of these students have employment in the state’s wildlife field today, which includes 14 of his students who are North Dakota game wardens. Outside of that figure, Aufforth has students spread out across the nation working in wildlife.
During Aufforth’s time at the college, he was the president of the faculty senate, conducted outreach programs on natural resources throughout the local area, and produced valuable work for such agencies as game and fish, parks and recreation and the forest service.
He was also a guide for a number of wildlife trips, some of which included sojourns to Churchill, MB, to study polar bears, the Phoenix-Tucson area to analyze the desert and its environment, and a variety of nesting locations in the Bottineau area for DCB’s annual birding festival.
Through his work, Aufforth has received numerous awards, two of which are the North Dakota Wildlife Federation’s Educator of the Year, and KXMC Channel 13 Golden Apple Award.
“These two awards are pretty special to me because it shows what I have taught my students, especially out in the field during our outdoor labs,” Aufforth said.
Over the past 40 years, Aufforth stated that time has changed in the classroom when it comes to instructing his students.
“Technology has really taken a big leap, and it has forced us as teachers to stay ahead of the students through workshops, because the advancements in technology are non-stop,” he said. “And, there is no paper anymore, everything is wireless and goes through the computer.”
Aufforth added that from tests, to grades, and doing research on the internet it is all done on the computer.
However, when it comes to taking tests, Aufforth still keeps to the same tradition he had when he started in the 1970s.
“I am still the paper man when comes to giving tests,” Aufforth said. “A lot of teachers give their tests on the computer, but I’ve stayed the same in that area.”
One other educational tool that hasn’t changed for Aufforth is how he conducts his outdoor labs.
“Labs are the one thing that has stayed consistent,” he said. “My outside labs deal with a lot of hands-on work in the wildlife field, and those things do not change out there. An example of this would be identifying ducks. The sex, age and identification process of ducks are the same as they were 40 years ago.”
When the college graduation ceremony takes place this Friday afternoon, Aufforth’s career at DCB will come to an end. And, as he takes those final steps, he stated that he will be taking a part of the college with, along with the knowledge that he did great things as an educator to his students.
“When instructors retire from here, a chunk of this college goes with us,” he said. “Like these students, I graduated from Dakota College at Bottineau with a degree in forestry, because at that time there was no wildlife management program here,” Aufforth said. “I studied forestry under Tiger John Molberg and he left a mark on me that I will never forget. So, I hope I have left a mark on some of my students.”
There is no doubt that in 40 years of teaching at DCB, Aufforth didn’t leave a mark on some of his students, but he left a mark on all of his students due to the fact that he taught them from his endearing heart and brilliant mind, which he gave completely to his students.