Mike Mulder
According to Principal Tony Fischer, Mike Mulder’s impact on the West Catholic community is immeasurable. Mike not only taught science classes at West for over 30 years, he also created many memories through the unique field trips he started, one of which continues today.
Mike started teaching at West in 1974 He mainly taught biology, anatomy and physical science. His goal was to have students love coming to school each day. Mike made sure to have the classes very “hands-on” and he was well-known for his dissection classes and always kept science fun and interesting. In the mid ‘80s, he even organized bus trips to the Museum of Science and Industry for the entire sophomore class, at the time numbering over 300 students. As a baseball coach for over 20 years, Mike also took teams during spring break to Texas and Florida for spring practice.
But it was in 1985 that his true legacy began: the annual Out West trip. The first trip only consisted of Mike and another teacher taking eight students to national parks in the Rockies. Starting in the summer of 1987, Mike continued to take students between their sophomore and junior years - along with teachers and parents as chaperones - on the nearly two-week trip to see the historic sites of the western national parks. These groups grew exponentially over the years and the last group he took reached 122. The trip continues to this day, and is now a highlight for a new generation of West’s students.
Mike retired in 2008, and he and his wife Kathi have continued to travel to many of the same places he took the students for all those years, plus many more throughout the U.S. Their three children Brian (‘95), Julie (‘96) and Lisa (‘01) all graduated from West.