To the Teachers Who Taught Me How to Tell the Story: A Letter of Gratitude

 

As I look back across the trail of my life—approaching another milestone birthday—my mind often turns to the folks who helped shape the man I became. I’ve spent a lifetime as a horseman, a canoeist, a Western historian, and a genealogist tracing my family back twelve generations in North America. But through all those decades, whether sitting in a Visalia saddle or paddling a river, I have always been a storyteller.

And for that, I owe a debt of gratitude to a group of remarkable educators who taught me how to put thoughts to paper, respect the truth, and write with purpose: my journalism teachers.

I doubt any of them are still on this side of the Great Divide to read these words, but I feel a deep need to write this letter anyway. I want the world to know who they were and what they gave a young kid from the San Fernando Valley and the Sierra foothills.

The Newsroom Mentors Who Set the Foundation

Long before I ever self-published a book or launched a blog, these advisers handed me a press card, taught me how to dig for facts, and showed me the power of a tight paragraph:

• Mrs. Diane Shaw — Adviser for the Forty Niner student newspaper at John A. Sutter Junior High School in Canoga Park (1955–1957). She was the first to trust a young junior-high kid with a notebook and a deadline, teaching me that every story starts with asking the right questions.

1959 Sierra High School 'Tomahawk' Reporters

• Ms. Priscilla Mailey — Adviser for the Tomahawk at Sierra Joint Union High School in Tollhouse, California (1957–1958). In the shadow of the Sierra Nevada, she taught us precision, discipline, and pride in seeing our names on a printed masthead.
• Mr. Bob Scheibel — Adviser for the Roundup at Los Angeles Pierce College in Woodland Hills (1970–1971). Returning to school after my military service, Mr. Scheibel refined my eye, showing me how to write with journalistic clarity, structure, and grit.

Decades later, in 2002, those same fundamental newsroom lessons came full circle when I served as reporter and editor for the Chatsworth Echo newsletter for the Chatsworth Equine Cultural Heritage Organization.

The Harvest of Their Instruction

They say a teacher’s influence never stops—it just echoes down the generations. When Mrs. Shaw, Ms. Mailey, and Mr. Scheibel were correcting my copy in blue pencil, I doubt they knew they were training an author who would go on to publish thousands of pages of history.

Because of the discipline they instilled in me, I went on to research, write, and publish stories I knew needed to be preserved:

• Genealogical Chronicles: Digging into our family roots with Back Trail of a Western Family (1998) and British Trail of a Western Family (1999).
• Western & Film History: Documenting the movie ranches and silver-screen heroes of my youth in Reel Cowboys of the Santa Susanas (2008) and Rendezvous at Boulder Pass - Hollywood's Fantasyland (2010).

• The Voyageur Legacy: Preserving the story of our French-Canadian fur trade ancestors across hundreds of pages in Ripples from La Prairie Voyageur Canoes (2017), La Prairie Voyageur Grandfathers (2019), and most recently, The River's Blood: The La Prairie Voyageur Legacy (2025).
• Over 1,200 Blog Posts: Writing nearly 1,000 articles on A Drifting Cowboy since 2011 to answer the questions I wish I had asked my granddad, and over 300 posts on Ripples from La Prairie Voyageur Canoes.

To My Teachers

To Mrs. Shaw, Ms. Mailey, and Mr. Scheibel:

You didn't just teach me grammar, inverted pyramids, or lead paragraphs. You taught me how to observe the world around me, how to honor the truth, and how to leave a paper trail for those coming down the road after me.

Every time I sit down at the keyboard to write about a good horse, a dusty Chatsworth trail, or an ancient ancestor who paddled a birchbark canoe, your lessons are right there in the room with me.

Thank you for your patience, your instruction, and your inspiration. The story turned out pretty good—and you helped me write it.

Happy trails,

Jerry England

A Drifting Cowboy

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