Friends, colleagues mourn Liz Quackenbush's death

Mar. 23—Liz Quackenbush was many things — an adventurer, an artist, a free soul, spontaneous and unafraid. But it is impossible to assess her dynamic life — a life taken too soon when she was stabbed to death — without taking into account her skill as a teacher.

Quackenbush, 39, taught at the Rochester Alternative Learning Center for five years before moving to New Orleans in 2019 to teach at a similar school there.

Colleagues say her great gift was the ability to connect with students who felt like castoffs in a traditional school setting. She "fiercely cared" about her students and their experiences. And they knew it.

"They knew that she genuinely cared about how they were as human beings," said Marian Holtorf-Jewell, an ALC colleague. "But as a teacher, she was so tenacious about when a kid was struggling. She wouldn't stop until the learning was meaningful to them."

Three weeks after her murder in her New Orleans house — the suspect is her former boyfriend, Preston Higgs, who remains on the loose — colleagues, friends and students are emerging from a "numbing grief" to talk about the magnitude of the loss. Having known her, they can't imagine a world without her.

"It changed the trajectory of my life," said Jess Sarver-Mullan, a former Rochester resident who first met Quackenbush at Willow Creek Middle School when they were both students. "We had so many pivotal moments and — I'm sure I'm not alone in saying this — we fully expected to have more and more adventures."

'She taught me about life'

Quackenbush started teaching as a special education teacher, then later as a science teacher. At the ALC in Rochester, Quackenbush taught students whose lives sometimes lacked the stability to learn. Sometimes homeless, struggling with mental health challenges and sometimes hungry, some of these students arrived at the ALC in survival mode, just trying to get by.

Quackenbush sought to instill in them a belief that their experiences uniquely qualified them to have a voice.

"She told them that because of the lens that you have, because of your life experiences, you have a unique way to give back to our world," Holtorf-Jewell said. "She helped them find pathways of empowerment."

She ditched traditional methods for more unconventional approaches. For one project-based lesson, she hatched ducklings with students. She would take the ducks home every night and put them in the bathtub and then take them back to school every morning.

For a final project one time, students expressed a desire to produce a rap video. She didn't argue with them, but instead validated their ideas, said Adrria Volk, an ALC graduate. She told them to write and revise the lyrics while she found a recording studio to record the song.

Quackenbush and fellow teacher Katie Sloan also pioneered the "Green Thumb Initiative," a school community garden that created educational spinoffs from gardening and grant writing to beekeeping.

Volk said Green Thumb Initiative was oftentimes the only thing that motivated her to go school. Volk was going through a "rough patch" in high school, when she often didn't have a home to go to. She is convinced she would have never graduated from high school if not for the ALC.

And at the ALC, Volk knew that if she could get through her other courses, she would get to Green Thumb Initiative, "something I cared about a lot."

"She didn't just teach me in the classroom, she taught me about life," Volk said about Quackenbush. "She made me laugh, you know, and I guess she didn't know that. She made me laugh on those days when it was just really hard to even smile."

She loved unconditionally

Quackenbush was fatally stabbed in her New Orleans "shotgun" house three weeks ago. Police there identified Higgs, who lived with her at the time, as the suspect. Law enforcement authorities have tracked him to Iowa and believe he may be en route to Minnesota.

Friends say Quackenbush's ability to see the best in others and not judge a person based on their past misdeeds may have accounted for the relationship with Higgs. She and Higgs had dated in Rochester. After Quackenbush moved to New Orleans in 2019, Higgs joined her a year later and moved in the house.

Although Higgs, 36, was on parole for a robbery and sexual assault he committed in Minnesota when he was 19, Quackenbush told her family to look past his record, according to nola.com

At a memorial held for her at New Harmony High School in New Orleans, Quackenbush's mother, Diane Holland, said the family only saw the positive side of Higgs, influenced as they were by "Liz's superpower: bringing out the best in people."

Friends say they were aware of arguments and fights between Quackenbush and Higgs. But they were unaware of signs that Higgs was violent or physical toward her.

"I know people grieve in different ways," said Keri Colvin, a long-time friend. "I know some people are mad, because she was so well-educated and why did she date somebody like that, that could have hurt her that way. But Liz always saw the best in everybody."

Rochester Police Department spokesperson Amanda Grayson said police are aware of Higgs and are on the lookout for him. Anyone with information on his whereabouts should contact Dispatch at 507-328-6800 and ask for investigator Jake Matz.

Friends said Quackenbush was an uninhibited soul, someone unafraid to act on her impulses. She and her friends would step out of a car and dance, inspired by a tune they liked. She loved to travel and go on cross-country road trips.

"She was just an amazing person," said Mandi Hyres, a two-decade-old friend. "She was so creative and spunky and hard-headed, but she always just loved unconditionally."