When he moved to Astoria in 1965, Larry Lockett said, his monicker became “the transfer student.”

Even after five years and countless academic and athletic milestones for Astoria High School, Lockett said he remained “the transfer student” in photo captions for The Daily Astorian.

Lockett, principal of Astoria High School since 2000, said he’s proud of gaining local status after 38 years. He will retire in June and return in a volunteer role to help the school, the district, the city and the county in any way he can. He’s not going to be anywhere near Astoria, though, when school restarts this fall.

“Since 1958, I’ve gotten up every morning and gone to school,” said Lockett, who will soon turn 60. “Whoever takes over needs to know it’s their school, their staff.”

Superintendent Craig Hoppes is in charge of the search for a replacement and is looking at a pool of candidates. He said the district will hire from within.

“I’ve never been around an administrator who’s as student-oriented as he is,” said Hoppes, adding that it would be difficult to replace 38 years of teaching and administrative experience.

He said there is no set timeline to announce a new principal, but that it might happen sometime in March or April.Lockett and his wife, Cheryl, have bought tickets for a trip to Italy in the fall.

“He doesn’t want to long to get up the morning after Labor Day and go to school,” said Cheryl Lockett. “We’re heading to some piazza somewhere to take his mind off it.”

One reason for his retirement was to spend more time around his family. The Locketts have two sons, Greg and Wade, three grandsons and another grandchild on the way.

“My first plan is my wife and my family,” Larry Lockett said. “My wife has stuck with me for 40 years, and I’ve never given her the time she has given me.”

His wife also let drop that Larry Lockett plans sailing courses, buy a boat and fulfill his maritime desires.

AHS’s longtime principal hasn’t hinted much at what all he wants to do in a volunteer role – maybe work on school policy, work directly with youths, volunteer articles for The Daily Astorian – he just doesn’t know. He did, however, say he is interested in coaching – maybe in wrestling.

To and from – and to

– Astoria

Lockett moved to Astoria as an eighth-grader, coming with his father Ken, mother Nancy, sisters Linda, Cindy and Sandy, and brother Terry from Lewiston, Idaho.

He stood out in school and athletics, graduating from AHS in 1970 along with his future wife Cheryl.

“He was just adorable,” she said. “He was the most happy and positive person – I love that about him. He always put a great spin on any situation.”

After earning an undergraduate in social science and teaching credentials from Oregon College of Education in 1974, Larry Lockett started his first teaching job at McMinnville Junior High School Aug. 28 of the same year, a day which will live in infamy for the family. “The superintendent announced that my wife had gone into labor,” he said about his first day as a teacher.

His eldest of two sons, Greg, was born that day, followed 16 months later by the birth of the younger Wade, which he learned about over the phone as a teacher at Albany High School.

Larry Lockett taught in Albany from 1975 to 1983 and said it had the most impact on his professional development. “It really shaped my visions and my thoughts of education,” he said, adding that about 12 staff members during his time there went on to become principals. While at Albany, he also earned his master’s degree in teaching from Western Oregon College.

He spent his longest tenure at Stayton High School as a teacher, head football coach, athletic director and assistant principal for his final three years. While there, he made famous his penchant for taking an active role in students’ lives.

“If it wasn’t for him, I’d be in prison,” said Ray Perkins, one of Lockett’s students and football players from Stayton. “I was from a broken home – got kicked out of the house. I went to live with Larry. Eventually Cheryl and Larry helped me enough to change the way I led my life.”

Perkins, who called from East Asia at $4 a minute to talk about one of the most influential men in his life, said the Locketts were the only reason he ever made it out of his small town to see the world. Larry Lockett’s different stops over the years are filled with such stories of him going beyond the regular call of duty.

After 16 years in Stayton, he spent a year at Lebanon High School as assistant principal. Then, he returned to Astoria at the turn of the millenium.

Locketts’ legacy

“When we’d get together as a family, it was more like a faculty meeting,”?said Lockett, whose family includes several generations of educators. “I assumed if your last name was Lockett, you’d be a teacher.”

His son Wade Lockett followed suit and teaches world history debate and law at Sandy High School, while advising the National Honors Society and coaching football and baseball. He’s close to finishing his credentials to become an administrator.

“The one thing that I kind of feel I took from my dad … is that teaching is far more about the kids than it is about the content,” he said about his father’s active role with students. “That’s something I’ve tried to stay true to myself.”

He added that while his elder brother is in business right now, he’s also expressed interest in becoming a teacher.

“There’s a friend that told me your success is measured by how good the program is five years after you leave,'” said Larry Lockett. “I hope there’s a foundation that’s been built.”

He leaves a high school he said has about the easiest student body he’s ever managed. “They would always try to meet your expectations.”

Some of the biggest issues Lockett said he dealt with included racial divisions in the classroom. He said that Hispanic students really stepped up to the plate and asserted themselves at school.

Lockett said all the other small things he dealt with were always bigger than they needed to be – the outsized emotions of teenagers – but it all help keeps him young.

His biggest issue at school was the high-stakes testing between No Child Left Behind, state requirements and the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) report. The report card from 2010, he said, was a particular slap in the face of AHS.

“Last year, we made big academic growth, and still didn’t pass the AYP,” he said. “It was an amazing year, academically, for Astoria. It’s the best we’ll ever have.”

Near the end of his career, Lockett also doesn’t pull punches about high school, either.

“High school’s not for everybody,” he said. “It fits about 70 percent of society. Those other 30 percent, we need to find a way to educate them.

“I think it’s important that we make sure every student has an opportunity. That’s why Gray’s School was opened. It hurts the graduation rate, but they need the opportunity.”

Some of his biggest accomplishments, he said, will be the many teachers he’s hired who will affect Astoria long into the future.