After a long illness, a beloved high school teacher's life is celebrated in Washington

WASHINGTON — Polly Fuller’s family has received hundreds of condolences on Facebook since her death Jan. 23, a testament to the fact that Polly was much more than just teacher.

“Though she loved teaching Spanish, Polly knew that so many of these kids needed more than just a Spanish teacher,” said Thomas Fuller, Polly’s husband of 22 years. “They needed somebody that cared about them and understood them. She was accepting of everyone, and became not just a teacher to many of these kids, but a counselor, a mom, a therapist, and more importantly, just a sounding board.”

Polly taught at Washington High School for 14 years, until she was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an incurable brain cancer, in August of 2018. It was a difficult time for Washington High School because basketball coach Kevin Brown had received the very same diagnosis about three weeks prior, said Thomas.

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“Considering you get only about 12,000 diagnosed (nationally) with glioblastoma in a year, and you get two of them here in this building in three weeks, it was pretty unusual,” he said. “Unfortunately, the lifespan for these folks is about a year. Kevin didn’t make it quite a year, which makes Polly’s four and a half years pretty miraculous.”

A love for personal connections

Polly grew up in Washington and graduated from Washington High School in 1991. Though she got a degree in business from the University of Wisconsin, after graduation she changed course.

“She just decided she was not suited for a career in business because of her love of personal connections and working with people," said Thomas. “I don’t know where she got the wild hair to go back and get a Spanish degree, but she went back to study Spanish, then she moved on her own to Costa Rica for four months to a language school. She moved in with a family down there, never having met them. She didn’t speak the language and they didn’t really speak English.”

Polly’s first teaching position was in Bloomington, where she met Thomas in 1999.

“I worked for State Farm and she had just started teaching. She moved in right across the hall from me, and we started dating probably five days later,” he said.

The pair married in 2000 and eventually moved back to Washington where they raised their two children, Grady, 19, and Annie, 17.

Live life to the 'Fullerest'

For Polly, teaching was more a passion than a job. When that passion started to wane about two thirds of the way through her career, she assessed the situation and made some adjustments.

“She decided to reinvent what she did and how she did it," said Thomas. “She spent the next six months studying and learning online a whole new method. She went back at semester and threw out everything she had done and started teaching this new method... It made a monster difference in what the kids are learning, their excitement in class, and more kids signed up for Spanish. It was just because she cared so much, and hated that she wasn’t doing what she thought was a good job for the kids.”

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Polly's work didn't end with teaching; she also made herself available to kids outside the classroom.

“She was always contacted by kids who needed to discuss things or wanted to meet for a cup of coffee to talk over problems or issues. She would drop anything to be there to help kids," said Thomas. “She sponsored the Spanish club and she was one of the sponsors when they first had the club for LGBTQ kids. Her brother is gay and she’s so accepting and understanding of kids as they struggled with that."

Polly advised her students to live life well. Every year before summer break she distributed a laminated page with the rules of life according to Senora Fuller. One of the rules was to live life to the fullest, a term which evolved into "Fullerest" because Polly lived what she preached.

A lasting legacy

Between growing up in Washington and teaching a generation of students, Polly's reach into the community was broad and deep.

“A lot of kids at the high school now don’t know Polly, because she’s been out four years, but their older siblings did, their parents did," said Thomas. “Last night they did a moment of silence for her at the boys' basketball game. Tonight, the girls' basketball team is wearing grey ribbons and stuff in her honor - grey is the color for brain cancer.”

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As an administrator at Washington High School, Thomas sees daily reminders of his wife’s lasting legacy.

“Even though she’s been gone four years, she is still well-known around here. That is humbling, and it makes me proud.”

A celebration of Polly’s life will be held from 5-8 p.m. Feb. 3 at Connect Church in Washington. A short service and program will begin at 5:30 followed by refreshments and the visitation.

Leslie Renken can be reached at (309) 370-5087 or lrenken@pjstar.com. Follow her on Facebook.com/leslie.renken.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Polly Fuller encouraged her students to live life to the "Fullerest"