'On the job': Family, peers remember longtime Lee High principal, Charlie Kurtz

STAUNTON — Mike Hanger has been married to Sharon Kurtz Hanger for 39 years. In all that time, he never called his father-in-law, Charlie Kurtz, by his first name. It was always Mr. Kurtz, Hanger said. Well, until the Hangers had kids. Then he could call him granddaddy. But never Charlie. That just sounded too informal and, for Hanger, Kurtz deserved more respect.

Kurtz, the longtime high school principal in Staunton, died Tuesday, Jan. 30 in Roanoke at the age of 90. He had been living with dementia for about 10 years, according to Hanger. In 2019 Kurtz and his wife, Kathryn, moved to Roanoke to be closer to their daughter and son-in-law. In addition to Sharon, the Kurtzes also had a son Dean Kurtz and another daughter, Kim Kurtz Uthe. Charlie and Kathryn, known to many as Kitty, had been married for 68 years.

A 1951 graduate of Robert E. Lee High School, Kurtz eventually returned to the Staunton school in 1965 as assistant principal. He earned his masters of education from the University of Virginia in 1967 and a year later was named Lee High's principal. It was a position he held for 20 years.

"He was greatly respected and admired by his peers," said Paul Vames, who was principal at Shelburne Middle School during the time Kurtz was at the high school. "I was a little younger than him and he was a mentor of mine. I listened carefully and learned a lot."

After graduating from Lee High, Kurtz went to Virginia Tech where he played football. An injury ended up bringing Kurtz back closer to home, where he finished his undergraduate degree at Bridgewater College. He was both a guard and linebacker for Bridgewater's football team, where he was captain on the 1954 squad. He also played basketball and baseball, and, in 1996, was inducted into the school's hall of fame.

Kurtz began his education career at Parry McCluer High School in Buena Vista, where he taught, coached and served as an administrator for seven years, a span that was interrupted by a stint in the Army, serving in Germany. Among the athletes he coached was Charlie Manuel, a former Major League Baseball player and manager.

He was also inducted into the Parry McCluer hall of fame in 2014, making it his fourth hall of fame. Besides Parry McCluer and Bridgewater, Kurtz is in the Lee High and Virginia High School League halls of fame.

"He would always just say, 'I just had so many good players, and coaches to help me, I didn't have to do that much'," said Hanger. "He was always deflecting it like that a lot."

When Kurtz was named principal at Lee, he asked Delmer Botkin to join him on the administrative staff as an assistant principal and athletic director. They were two of the big three who formed a strong leadership team at the school for two decades. The third was Alphonso Hamilton, who came to Lee as an assistant principal from Booker T. Washington during integration in 1966. Hamilton, who passed away in 2020, remained part of the administration team when Kurtz was hired.

The three of them worked together as a team for 20 years, something Botkin said was unusual for the time and even more rare these days.

"The three of us felt like that was our calling," Botkin said. "We liked the positions we were in and liked working with young people. We took it seriously and enjoyed the work we did."

Hanger said those three earned the respect of all the students at Lee High.

"In some ways you even feared them," Hanger said. "You just didn't want to mess up."

Kurtz was principal when the high school moved from Churchville Avenue to North Coalter Street in 1983. In May, 1988, in a News Leader story about Kurtz's retirement, Thomas Dixon calculated that, under Kurtz, 4,717 students had graduated.

Vames thought one of Kurtz's best traits as a principal was just how visible he was. He said Kurtz was out at the bus stop in the morning as students arrived, he was always in the hallways during class changes, spent time in the cafeteria during lunch and was back out at the buses when it was time for students to head home.

"And if you went back that night he was probably there watching a ball game or some other school activitiy," Vames said. "All of those things are very, very important for the student body, but especially the faculty and staff, to know that they have a principal who is visible and on the job. And he was that. He was on the job."

The Staunton Leader article announcing Kurtz's hiring also mentioned that Paul Hatcher would be the new head basketball coach and James Talbott would be the head baseball coach. Hatcher and Talbott, like Kurtz, are both legendary figures in the history of Staunton City Schools.

Botkin said Kurtz was well respected beyond Staunton. On a state level, he served as chairman of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools for Virginia and chairman of the Virginia High School League.

"Immediately once you got to know him, you respected him," Botkin said. "He set a good tone for the student body in terms of expectations."

A funeral will be held Saturday, Feb. 10, at 2 p.m. at Oak Grove Church of the Brethren in Roanoke.

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— Patrick Hite is The News Leader's education reporter. Story ideas and tips always welcome. Contact Patrick (he/him/his) at phite@newsleader.com and follow him on Twitter @Patrick_Hite. Subscribe to us at newsleader.com.

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Charlie Kurtz, a longtime high school principal in Staunton, dies