The conference room in the main office was covered with memories. Photos of former students, athletes and teachers were scattered along the walls of the small meeting room, reminding Dr. David Holley of the 57 years he spent as a student, coach, teacher and principal in the Kirkwood School District. Many photos have come down, leaving hundreds of tacks in their place. Holley may have only two months left as KHS principal, but he remains passionate as ever. The Kirkwood Call sat down with Holley for his final interview as principal to talk about Mr. Kriewall, his toughest moment as principal and his final message to students.

At KHS we have McCallie Hall and the Keating Theater, both named after retired principals. If you could have one building in the school named after you, what would it be?
I wouldn’t ever think about that, truthfully. Here’s more than you need to know. My grandmother donated money in my mother’s name to the ATLAS program. There was a sign that said “Holley Hall” on that door by ATLAS. The first couple of years it was up I thought, “This isn’t what our family does. Our family does not want names on things.” So I took it down. [My family] does not do this for our name on something.

If you could name three people you could not survive without at KHS who would they be?
I wouldn’t do that either. I don’t want to exclude people. I could say Mrs. Ravenscraft because she keeps my life orderly, but there are people I talk to every single day. Mike Wade does certain things, Chris Lindquist does certain things, the administration are the people with whom I’m in the closest contact with. I talk to [Randy] Kriewall [math teacher] everyday because he makes me laugh. Kriewall and I have become very good friends through this experience.

If you could take one class at Kirkwood, what would it be?
I always like sitting in Mr. Olderman’s or Mr. Platte’s history class because I’m a history guy. But I think someone out of the box would be David Cannon [choir teacher]. He knows this; I fancy myself as a singer and I’m really not. So I would like to be in that class.

If you were a student at KHS today, what kind of student would you be? Would you be taking hard classes?
They didn’t have these harder classes when I went here. I played basketball. I knew the standard in my house was pretty low. You better not come home with anything less than a 3.0. What has shaped my belief in this school is my experience as a student was so based on who taught the class, I didn’t care what the subject was. If I had a great math teacher, I loved math. If I had a great science teacher, I loved science. I didn’t really have great history teachers. That’s part of the reason why when I got to college and had great history teachers, I began to love history. But in high school I never challenged myself. Sometimes I worry about kids trying to do too much. I wonder if we push kids too hard. My son was the editor of The Call, he was the vice president of Student Council, he was on the swim team and the water polo team and he took two or three A.P. courses and he almost couldn’t make it through his senior year. There was a point when he almost melted down. That’s why I try to play and have fun to let kids laugh a little bit. Being 18 or 17 is pretty hard sometimes.

Do you feel like you’re ever pushed too hard in your job?
Not lately. Not since December. Probably, but I don’t remember. I thought coaching and teaching were way harder than being a principal. How about trying to teach five out of six hours of history and being a great history teacher? I worked hard at trying to be a great history teacher, and I worked hard at trying to be a great basketball coach, and I worked hard at trying to be a good father and to be a great husband. That was way harder than being a principal. Way harder.

What is the hardest part of your job? Is it the meetings?
I don’t have meetings because I hate meetings. I don’t discipline kids because I have great assistant principals. The hardest part for me was finding great teachers, and finding the teachers in this school and encouraging teachers who aren’t up to the standard to lead. That’s hard. What I never learned in graduate school is how to get rid of the teachers who are here that aren’t good teachers. That’s not easy. It can be gut-wrenching because of what it does to lives of those people.

What was the single hardest day you ever had as a principal?
There’s no doubt about that. I can’t even talk about it. My first year a kid who my daughter was with Friday night before Turkey Day committed suicide on Monday morning. Imagine Turkey Day of your senior year, one of the most popular kids in the class on that Monday, committed suicide. If I ever have to go to somebody’s house again where the child has committed suicide, I’m just going to keep on walking. I can’t do that anymore. I’ve done that too many times. A death is terrible. But that was the worst week of my entire principal career. It affects my daughter to this day. I don’t know if that’s too serious, but that’s the truth.

How about the best day?
This is kind of goofy. I love Kriewall [former head boys’ basketball coach]. The day they beat Webster, (Dr. Holley begins to cry). You can’t explain this because I love Kriewall so much. I wanted Kriewall to win that game so much. We got off to a really big lead and Webster came back. I went into the bathroom the whole third quarter and I couldn’t watch it because I wanted Kriewall to win that game. And we won. I love that guy. And that meant so much to me that we got the win. The common theme in my highlights were all when we beat Webster. The problem is we didn’t beat Webster enough.

How did having your kids Lara and Jay at KHS affect how you were principal?
Laura was a senior my first year, and I was lost my first year. My first year, every day I turned the page I didn’t know what was going to happen. It’s so big. I’d been the principal at North. There were 600 kids [at NKMS] and then there were 1,800 [at KHS]. All these things are smashing you in the face everyday. 9/11 was 10 days into my principalship. Laura and I talked a lot. I talked more to Jay. One thing Jay said when he went to college was, ‘Don’t they understand it’s just high school?’ I don’t want to diminish that this isn’t important but the point is this isn’t the end of the world, it’s high school. It’s not brain surgery.

You said that your first year as principal was tough. What would you say to a student next year about handling a new principal?
I would say to the senior class, be accepting. First of all, he’s a great guy and it’s different than when I came here because I had been gone for 10 years and I’d never been an administrator. The advantage he has is that he’s been here. He understands the rhythms of the school. He’s different than I am and that’s good. You don’t want somebody like me being the next principal.

Are there any moments when you think, “I wish I would have reacted differently”?
Every day. I go home and I say “I wish I could have done this differently or I wish I could have done that better.” I’m an emotional person and I do a lot stupid things because of how I react to things. Can I give you a specific? No. I go home and say “Boy, was that a dumb thing I said” or “Boy was that a dumb thing I did.” There are very few decisions that are irreparable. You can’t just change.
How often do you cry at school? What still moves you emotionally at KHS?
A lot of things do. I love this school. I love the teachers at this school, and I love the kids at this school. You’re trying to make me cry again. When I talk about things about which I am passionate, I am unable to control that in myself. And I don’t think that’s a good thing by the way. I can just be talking to you and all of the sudden I start talking about Kriewall and I start crying. I don’t know why that is. My decision was, “I want to leave this place when I still love it and I still love my job. I don’t want to leave this place with somebody tapping me on the shoulder saying, “Do you know it’s time for you to go?'” There probably are people who say that. In general, I am leaving on my terms when I still like my job. That is important to know about myself. And know that it is time to go. Your question was “what makes you cry?” I don’t know what makes me cry. I’ll be talking about something and the next thing I know we’re talking about Mike Wade and the next sentence I’ll start crying.
Your former basketball coach Denver Miller was an important role model to you. Are there any teachers now who remind you of him?
I think everybody in this school is Denver Miller to somebody. David Cannon is Denver Miller to somebody. Mitch Eden is Denver Miller to somebody. I know that’s not what you asked, but the person who sat next to me on the bench probably didn’t even like Denver Miller. It was not a universal like. He was the right person at the right place in my life to do the right thing. Just like David Cannon or Mitch Eden or Julie Goodman. Everybody in this school is somebody’s Denver Miller. That’s why I think this is a great school. Denver Miller was an incredibly passionate and fiery person. He retired at 65 and he was just as passionate when he was hired at 23. That’s one of the things I admired about him.

For kids who still haven’t found a home at KHS, what advice would you give them?
High school isn’t for everybody. I know that. Not everybody wants to be in the play or the band or The Call. That’s okay too. But hopefully they’re passionate about something. If it’s their job at PetSmart, I hope they’re passionate about their job at PetSmart. I can’t imagine about living a life where you’re not passionate about some part of your life. That doesn’t mean you have to be passionate about everything, but hopefully you can find something you’re passionate about.

This is your last interview as KHS principal. Is there anything else you would like to add?
This is high school. It needs to be fun. That’s what I try to do as a teacher. That’s what I try to do as the principal. All this stuff with the Blow Pops is silly, but I think high school is hard. And I think being 14 to 18-years-old is hard. What we try to do is, as in people who act silly, is let kids have fun. It makes kids smile on a Friday afternoon. On a Friday afternoon, everybody’s tired and nobody wants to learn. Smile a little bit and have fun. I hope you had fun, I hope you learned a lot, and I hope kids have come out of here able to embrace their passion. Somebody has a passion for journalism, someone has a passion for the flute, someone has a passion for math. I think having a school where we can channel that passion is an incredibly important thing.