Written by Jeff Stanton

It is a great honor for me to write this tribute to Marcia Clem for her retirement, after her many years as a Lapeer Community Schools employee. Unfortunately, I was only able to be Marcie’s principal for one year at Zemmer.  In that short time though, I could really see her dedication to her role as a French teacher and the impact she had on our staff and students.

One thing that Marcie always tried to do was to make school “fun,” which can be very tricky for middle school students. It is well known among staff and students that French Club was an outstanding and enjoyable opportunity for Zemmer students.  In fact, it may be the only French Club in history that was actually attended by Spanish students! Students heard how entertaining the club was and started to attend meetings, even though they had no desire to speak French. To me that’s the equivalent of a student taking part in a music or band club when they’ve never picked up an instrument in their life.

During Marcie’s time at Zemmer, she was also an integral part of the PBIS program in her time before I arrived. She added an element of “fun” to this as well and was always hoping to make the school a more positive place to be. Because I’m new to Zemmer, I also did a little research into Marcie’s background and was amazed at what I found out!  Now, these may be growing legends, but I have heard that Marcie has a black belt in Karate, is a licensed CPL holder, an avid love of the outdoors and hunter, and has even been known to fill in on the men’s hockey league when needed. Had I known these things, I think I could have definitely utilized her in many other areas at Zemmer including student discipline (kidding, of course).  

Sadly, she is retiring and we’ll never find out how these other skills could have also benefitted the students and staff.  We all definitely appreciate the many years of service and dedication Marcie gave to LCS. She will missed by all.