Julia Rowland has taught fifth grade language arts at Bear Lake Middle School for 25 years and has been loved by students and teachers for just as long. However, she decided to retire this year.
Julia is a very personable and modest woman with whom one can talk very well. She loves her family and especially loves the Bear Lake Valley.
She grew up on a dairy farm in Bloomington with four sisters and a brother, the daughter of Jay and Nadine Nelson. She graduated from Bear Lake High School in 1974, where she was involved with Lakettes and where she was president of the student body in her senior year. She played a lot of softball in church and remembers that her sister Joyce was the thrower; she herself played first base; and her sister, Gay, was stopped briefly. She says: “We had a lot of fun!”
After graduating from high school, she went to BYU in Provo, where she studied elementary school education. After her junior year at BYU, she came to Bear Lake sorting potatoes for Dennis Stevens, the only year Bear Lake had a potato seller. She met Brian Roland while sorting potatoes – and it was love at first sight!
After that summer, Julia went back to BYU and finished school, and the next summer she and Brian married. Brian went to school for another year and then they decided to “come home” and raise their family in Bear Lake.
Julia and Brian have five wonderful children. First is Brooke, who is married to Aaron Geary and lives in Mendon. Brook and Aaron have five children. Then comes Jamie. Jamie taught math in sixth grade at Bear Lake Middle School last year, which was wonderful for Julia. Jamie is married to Brandon Baker and they live in Bennington. Jamie married with five children and Brandon married three, so together they have eight children. Next comes Joy, who is married to Joe Fair. You live in Provo and have seven children. The next is Casey, who is married to Raquel. You live in Kemmerer and have three boys. Last is Christi, who is married to Brady Thornock. Christi and Brady live in Randolph with their three children.
Julia says she absolutely loves spending time with her children and grandchildren. They love to travel, camp, garden, and read. Spending time with them is the most important thing to her.
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When her youngest daughter Christ was in fifth grade, Julia had done a lot of substitute classes for the school district. But she already had her teaching degree, so she decided to teach full-time as well. She was employed and has been at Bear Lake Middle School since then.
Julia says: “I wanted to retire a year ago, but COVID hit me. I decided not to quit my online teacher career! So last year I got a bonus year as a teacher. “
She says, “I loved teaching. It has been my home away from home for 25 years. It was wonderful to be there. I absolutely loved it. Lots of people are scared of going to work, but I’m not. Oh, I was scared of Monday sometimes, but when I got to work it was wonderful. It was just an amazing career; I couldn’t have chosen a better one. It was everything I hoped for. It’s just so much fun meeting and remembering my students years later. Sometimes I don’t remember their names, but I always remember their faces. It’s just such a connection. It was wonderful for me. “
She continues: “I am delighted to be retiring. It’s time. You are getting to the point where it is time for someone else to have this wonderful opportunity to move into your classroom and have the same experience for their life. “
Julia says she has many plans for the future, and that she and Brian want to serve missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
After all, she wants everyone to know that Bear Lake is home and that there is no place like home. She says the people here are the kindest, most generous, and most wonderful people. And she says: “My advice would be to learn and do something new every day and to enjoy life to the fullest!”
Julia Rowland, the teacher who lived her dream.
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