High school teacher, mentor retires

The orange and green bookshelves, the old desks and even the beloved cartoon mural of Shakespeare will remain, but Room 281 in Sims Hall will never be the same.

After 23 years at Newport Harbor High School, the room’s premier resident, Chet Malek, is checking out.

Long before Malek, 60, arrived at Newport Harbor High, his academic career was underway. He taught English to eighth-graders at Kaiser Elementary School from 1971 to 1982 and at Lincoln Elementary School from 1982 to 1984. He recalls that his years teaching middle school students were some of his most challenging.

“You really learn how to teach in junior high school,” he said, recalling rowdy students with short attention spans. “If you don’t know how to teach in junior high, then you’ll get eaten alive.”

In 1984, Malek relocated to Newport Harbor High, where he taught everything from regular, honors and AP English to social studies, journalism and yearbook classes, and served for years as the chairman of the English Department. He soon became active outside of the classroom as well.

For eight years, Malek, who grew up in Santa Ana, served as the school’s activities director, later becoming an advisor for the school’s National Honors Society chapter for three years. For the past 14 years or so, he has been involved with Heritage Hall, the high school’s own historical museum.

Clearly, Malek enjoyed challenging himself with a full schedule, and he urged his students to do the same. In fact, his daily lesson plans were often a little too ambitious.

“One time last year, I actually got a symbolic standing ovation for actually finishing everything we needed to finish that day, because I think in the seven years I taught AP, that never really happened,” Malek joked.

Although he always kept busy and tried his hand at a range of jobs at the high school, students and colleagues alike came to see that Malek has certain characteristics that never waver.

Scott Dukes, a science teacher at Newport Harbor High and a longtime colleague of Malek’s, described his co-worker as “Always fair — he wasn’t always the easiest, but he was always fair … any teacher who can motivate you to do your best and try your hardest and be fair about it, you can’t ask for much more.”

Dukes’ daughter Carrie, who was in Malek’s class as a senior in 2001-2002, agrees with her dad.

“I loved his class so much because he facilitated debates and he wouldn’t take sides, he would just record it and help you develop your thoughts. He gave everyone the same treatment,” she said.

Malek’s dedication to fairness and equal treatment rubbed off on his students in tangible ways.

Sara Robinson, a student of Malek’s during the 1994-1995 school year who now teaches at UC Irvine, recalled Malek’s emphasis on peer editing.

“He always wanted us to know what our peers were thinking. Now that I teach writing at UCI, I use peer editing all the time, and that comes from Mr. Malek’s class.”

As much as his students cherish their memories of his class, Malek will be perhaps most missed by his closest colleague, Martha Topik, with whom he taught AP English for the last seven years.

“He brings with him harmony no matter what he does … a kind of beauty and achievement he brings to any group,” said Topik, who earlier this year presented Malek with the Bill Boyer Award for excellence in teaching. Malek’s colleagues voted him the award’s recipient.

Malek, who lives in Laguna Niguel with his wife and has two children ages 20 and 24, says he doesn’t have specific retirement plans, though he plans to stay involved with Heritage Hall.

“He was a colleague, a friend and a mentor. He’s a very complete person and a very interesting person … I’m just torn. I can’t stand it that my favorite colleague is going to leave,” Topik said.