Decker enters new chapter

PONDERAY — Public servant, veteran, teacher, and school board trustee of over seven years, Purley Decker, bid farewell to the Lake Pend Oreille School Board at the Dec. 12 meeting.

He leaves behind a seat with many memories and contributions to the district and country. 

 “I’ve had the honor of working with Purley for many years,” LPOSD Superintendent Dr. Becky Meyer said. “The thing I will remember most about Trustee Decker is his sincere care and compassion for every single student. This is evident by the numerous former students who continue to stay in contact with him. It’s truly heartwarming.” 

Prior to his role as a trustee, Decker was a teacher within LPOSD, which was preceded by military service. 

“In the military, I was a preventive medicine specialist — a lot of epidemiology work,” he said. "My focus throughout my career was primarily foodborne disease, waterborne disease and arthropod borne disease (insect bugs), and the prevention of climatic diseases like heat stroke and frostbite.”

Decker said he worked in this field for most of his 24 years in the military, aside from three years as a first sergeant dealing with soldiers and command structure.

For some of his time in service, Decker was stationed in Vietnam. He recalled one time he was addressing challenges at a bridge being built over the Song Be River when soldiers came under fire from a sniper. 

“It was very interesting,” he said. “The engineers knew the sniper — I guess he would come out every day and take potshots at them. Nobody was ever hit, but that day they had Air Force support.”

While he observed other military activity during his time of service, Decker said what happened next was the most exciting thing he saw while stationed in Vietnam. 

“I got to watch an F-4 Phantom fly under the bridge,” he said. “[The pilot’s] jetstream blew all of the water out of the bridge and washed away all of our control techniques we tried to build. He flew under the bridge and cut loose and they told us later they never had another issue with that sniper … I had no clue that those guys could fly those jets like that, but they can.” 

Following his time in the military, Decker took on a retirement assignment in Tacoma, Wash.

“I was teaching technology to soldiers through the education system over there,” he said. “And I took a course called ‘Intro to Education’ and that was it.” 

At that point, Decker came to Idaho and earned his bachelor's degree in elementary education at the University of Idaho. He taught in Clark Fork for a year and at Hope for 15 years. 

Decker said the military showed him the need for young people to get the best education that they can.

“It also gave me the patience needed to be a teacher,” he said. “During the later years of my military career, I spent a lot of my time teaching soldiers, individually and in large groups, at all levels, how important it is to understand the threat that diseases and climatic injuries present to the level of readiness of themselves and their units. I guess, you could say, I've always been a teacher of sorts."