The Adventures of a Teacher, Father, and Husband: The Life of Joel Priest
By: Dachka G.T Alcindor ‘23
Mr.Priest is a jack of all trades; he’s a father, a husband, a guitarist, an educator, an enthusiast and the list goes on. Best described as an outdoor adventurer, how did he become the person we know him today? How does someone prone to adventure get that same experience elsewhere?
Before having kids, Mr. Priest engaged in many heavy duty climbing activities like rock climbing and ice climbing. Now that his little boys are evolving into young men, he’s returning to the heavy duty outdoor adventurous stuff. Last summer, he climbed a huge mountain way out west in Wyoming and in two years he is going to climb the highest peak in America which takes five weeks to climb.
The Outdoors.
His love for the outdoors sparked at a young age. Between the ages of six and eight, young Priest learned about pollution. The thought of people dumping refrigerators and tires into a creek was hard to bear. His parents put him through boy scouts, but he remained inspired and anxious to do more.
College is when the adventures were able to take its course. As a student at Washington University, he was active in the outing club, which was offered to all lovers of the wilderness, creatures, and plants. Members of the club participate in lots of trips like rock climbing and canoeing.“The thing I discovered about being outdoors is not being alone but being with the other people in the outdoors.” Being a part of this club helped carve him into a leader and sharpen his skills. His first outdoor leadership trip happened in college. For most college students, spring break is the time to party and drink hard in the warm sun of Florida. However, Mr. Priest had gathered money from the student union, bought groceries, and was preparing to take a group of ten on a backpacking trip in Arizona. It consisted of driving for two days straight from Saint Louis to the wild desert area, hiking for five days, and then driving back for class."I arranged that, and my confidence went way up. I was very proud of being able to pull that together. That was something college was able to support me to do."
Family.
The outdoors has played a significant role in Mr. Priest's family life. He met Marianna, his wife of twenty-three years, in 1991 through a camp counselor job. They taught rock climbing and backpacking at a girl's summer camp and fell in love there. Marianna and Priest are like tent poles and stakes, essential and united. They have two sons, Jasper and Mateo Priest. Having an interracial family is both widely accepted and not accepted; they have received positive comments and faced negative interactions as well. Having Jasper and Mateo has allowed them to become more aware of racial inequalities and had those awkward conversations about race. Still, the family can overcome all of that; they have fun going camping and international travel. It’s in those moments that they are able to bond and grow. The best adventure happens when they’re all together, making memories.
Teaching.
In high school, Mr. Priest figured he wanted to be an actor or a primatologist. He's done both in college and beyond, but they just weren't for him. Darrow was one of two schools in upstate NY that Mr. Priest applied and interviewed for. The decision to come to Darrow was based on the academic program, the need for a math teacher, spring term, and outdoor education. When Mr. Priest worked as a primatologist, one of the challenges was being isolated from people for months at a time. “I love connecting with people.. This business of teaching online is really hard because I love being around human beings and I love the subjects that I teach and that includes outdoor ed.” Being a father, husband, and teacher has offered Mr. Priest many experiences and adventures that he would not have gotten as a primatologist.
“I’m proud of the adventures I’ve had, the things that I tried even if they were failures. I'm proud that I so much wanted to be a primatologist and I found out it wasn’t for me . I found something different, took a risk and then tried another path.”
Written by Dachka Alcindor ‘23 for Nancy Dutton’s Writing and Literature I
