Rand Rasmussen is a name that strikes fear into every unsuspecting sophomore. Those who have already experienced his class know that he is a good man who only cares that we learn and improve.

Currently, Rand is battling cancer, a disease he has been fighting since his diagnosis three years ago. Through these last few years he has undergone many treatments and surgeries that may show scars, but don’t slow him down. No matter his condition, he still shows up every day to school at exactly 5:45 am.

However, as students, most of us don’t know all that much about his fight with cancer. He keeps it hidden because to him it is no excuse to not be doing his absolute best at his job. Although it seems like Rand has been teaching forever, there actually was a time in his life when he wasn’t a teacher.

After Rand graduated from high school he attended California State University Northridge. While attending college he played baseball and football with the hopes of one day going pro. After he graduated with a degree in health and physical education, he moved up to Canada to pursue his dream as a pro athlete.

Although while in Canada things didn’t go quite as he had planned. He picked up a job at the County Recreation Department. Within a month he began to like his boss and not too long after that he married her.

After working at the recreation department, he got his first teaching job at age 23 as a PE teacher in Alberta, Canada. Twelve years later, he drove down to Utah for a teaching interview. After competing with 80 other applicants, it was down to him and one other guy, and he didn’t get the job. Soon after, he learned of a job at Bingham and they hired him first as a girls basketball coach and a year later as a youth and custody teacher.

When an opportunity in the Careers Department opened, he took the job and has been teaching careers ever since. When asked what his favorite part of teaching has been he replied, “To watch kids grow in their relationships and maturity is a real fun thing.”

In his time as a teacher, Rand has seen quite a bit of history. The events that really stood out to him were the Vietnam war, the Watts Summer Riots of 1965, and the impact of Martin Luther King Jr.

He said life in the 60s was “perfect.” Everything was almost calm until the Kennedy assassination. Then there was unrest. Vietnam soon began in full swing after that and the perfect life seemed to be interrupted forever.

In his time Rand has had many great accomplishments. Just a month ago he was inducted into the Utah coaches hall of fame. He’s an outstanding teacher who has no doubt touched the lives of thousands of students. And most importantly to him, he has two sons Matt and Nate who he says he couldn’t be more proud of.