file photo: Roger Harpham introduces the 20th annual Goehner Melodrama, The Woman in White, at a dress rehearsal.

by Theodore Wiesehan

    A pivotal scene in It's a Wonderful Life finds angel Clarence showing a despondent George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) the incredible impact his life made on those around him.
     From a teaching career, to directing the Goehner Melodrama, to the countless relationships he fostered with former students, colleagues and community members, calculating the number of lives Roger Harpham touched during his 64 years of life would truly be a supernatural task.
     "You know Roger could have gone anywhere," Seward High School (SHS) teacher and former Harpham student Pat Brauer said, "just because of his talent, his intellect and his charisma. And we are very lucky he didn't because he has influenced a lot of kids."
     Harpham died Jan. 13 in Kenesaw, leaving behind a legacy that includes 34 years of teaching speech at SHS, 20 years of directing the Goehner Melodrama, 12 state champion speech teams, and myriad one-act and three-act drama productions at SHS.
    A teacher first and foremost
     "First and foremost, Roger was a teacher," SHS teacher and former Harpham student Clark Kolterman said. "Whether he was teaching at the Melodrama or teaching at the high school or teaching life skills with the speech team and drama group he was always teaching."
     Kolterman was a sophomore at SHS when Harpham was hired at Seward and remembers his arrival vividly.
     "(Harpham) wasn't much older than the kids and he had to put this whole program together," he said. "He lived in a basement apartment underneath the old water tower. That's where he lived, but he was never there. He was always in school."
     As Seward High School requires a semester of speech, every graduating student had at least one class with Harpham until his retirement in 2001.
     "The actual speech class was one that a lot of kids had a fear of," Kolterman said. "Boy, I'll tell you, it's one that's done the most for a lot of our kids' success when they got out of school and I think that's attributed to Roger."
     Nebraska State Senator Danielle Nantkes is one SHS alum who hailed Harpham's influence on her life.
     "I took every class I think you could take from him," Nantkes said. "From the moment I first met Mr. Harpham and then got to know him...he helped me to develop the skill set that serves me very well in my current capacity.
     "(He) encouraged a love a public speaking, and the ability to convey my position has had an immeasurable impact on my life."
     Brauer saw Harpham's influence in her life, as well as in the life of her son, Ryan Brauer, now an attorney in St. Paul, Minn.
     "(Ryan) was on the speech team and I know with confidence that he would say it was the most valuable experience of his high school career," she said. "As a freshman in law school (Ryan) was selected as the best student orator and I told Roger, 'That is your doing.'"
    Bringing the best out of people
     From SHS one-act plays to 20 years of the Goehner melodrama, Harpham brought the professionalism and high expectations of his classroom to theater productions.
     "He's a perfectionist," Lloyd Schulz, Goehner, said. "But he had a way to...get the best out of people that they could do."
     Lloyd and his wife Caryl appeared in the Goehner Melodrama every year since its inception and Caryl brought the initial idea of a melodrama performance to the village's centennial celebration committee.
     "I told (Roger) we just need a little bit of help along the way," Caryl said. "And it wasn't just a few suggestions he gave us. He stayed out there and directed it."
     Harpham continued to direct the melodrama year-in and year-out through its 20-year run as the performances garnered attention throughout the state and pulled audiences from across the Midwest.
     "People would come through the lines, particularly in the last few years, and ask, 'Where did you get your actors? Did you import (them)?'" Caryl said. "We'd say, 'no,' and they would be surprised. Just think - he made actors out of farmers.
     "Our villain had no acting experience, and I had to really twist his arm to do this. He has a reputation throughout the state and that's because Roger pulled it out of him."
     Even when working with the melodrama, Harpham was giving back to his high school students. After the production's unexpected opening success he convinced the group to establish a scholarship fund for area students from the melodramas' admission receipts.
     "He wouldn't have (stayed with the melodrama) had not the scholarship thing been our goal," Lloyd said.
     The fund provides around a dozen $1,000 scholarships to area students annually and now totals $300,000, ensuring that the giving will continue in perpetuity.
     "This year we established a scholarship for performing arts for Seward High - a $1,500 scholarship every year - in his name," Lloyd added.
    "He lived simply, quietly..."
     Roger avoided the limelight and never acted in the melodramas. He was a private person and even felt uncomfortable having his name attached to the SHS scholarship.
     While he had a penchant for clothing and cars - he owned three convertibles, including a vintage MG - "that's about the only expensive habit he had," Lloyd said.
     "He lived simply, quietly, but there was always a steady stream of people that went out to visit him," Caryl said.
     Throughout his life he never hesitated to sacrifice his own comfort for the benefit of his students and those around him.
     "When he did his one-act plays, if it called for a living room set he would empty his living room and put it up on the stage and sit around his living room for a month on folding chairs," Kolterman said. "Sometimes he'd buy furniture because he needed a certain piece for a play. He did that more than once, I know."
     Even his beloved convertibles were offered up to his students when the need arose.
     "Come prom time kids would say, 'Mr. Harpham,' or 'Harp.' They called him 'Harp,'" Caryl said. "They wanted to borrow his convertible for prom and no problem, he'd let them. He loaned them to the kids so that they could impress their dates."
     His students were not the only recipients of his generosity, however. Harpham was always willing to lend a hand to his neighbors.
     "He was so good to the elderly people, particularly the widows down there where he lived," Caryl said. "He decorated for them at Christmas. He would put up their Christmas tree. He'd scoop their snow."
    A good life
     Harpham retired from SHS in 2001, though his influence never left, as his former students now teach classes and lead activities in his place.
     "I missed him terribly," Brauer said of Harpham's retirement. "He taught across the hall from me most of the years that I was here. I know I'm a better teacher because of him. His standards of excellence were so high you wanted to emulate them."
     "He was my good friend," Kolterman said. "He was in my wedding...and he convinced me to get my speech degree. He's a legend."
     Harpham relished the extra free time retirement provided to spend on one of his favorite activities - reading.
     "I think in his retirement he read something like 500 books," Kolterman said. "He would know, because he'd be keeping track of how many books he read. That was one of his joys of retirement, was that he could read nonstop."
     Where George Bailey had stood on a bridge pondering whether his life meant anything to anyone, Harpham often received reminders of the impact of his work on others.
     "He'd get calls kind of out of the blue," Lloyd said, "somebody that he'd taught 20 years ago or something and they would just relate to him how much his classes had helped him."
     In fact, he had recently received a letter from a former colleague with whom he had lost contact decades ago.
     "(Harpham) had been such a great mentor to him...he just felt moved to write Roger and thank him," Caryl said. "He didn't even know (Harpham) was sick. Things like that happened frequently with him."
     Harpham was diagnosed with cancer at the end of October.
     "He was the kind of person that when he was diagnosed he said, 'I've lived a good life. I have no regrets,'" Caryl said. "And he was grateful for the good life that he had had."