Longtime educator cleans up in new career

Monday, March 27, 2006 | 7:24 a.m.

Bryan Shaddick isn't the retiring sort.

The 81-year-old former superintendent of schools in Jamestown, N.Y., is friendly and outgoing as he talks about his life of nonretirement.

He and his wife, Suparika, moved to Las Vegas more than 15 years ago to be near her mother.

Shaddick had retired from a career in education, which began as a high school math and science teacher and ended as superintendent.

"I did very little - read, played the slots," he said. "I was bored."

And so he went to work at the Imperial Palace 14 years ago as a porter.

"After several months they decided I should be a supervisor," Shaddick said. "So I was supervisor on the night shift a couple years, then on the swing shift for a while and now I'm the day shift supervisor."

As casino housekeeping supervisor he oversees a staff that makes sure the restaurants, restrooms, floors, slots and tables in the casino are clean - they take care of everything except the hotel.

Shaddick says the job isn't that difficult. "It's just a matter of keeping people busy."

Shaddick has stayed busy most of his 81 years.

Born in South Wales in 1924, his Scottish family moved to the United States in 1929 - sailing aboard the SS Leviathan, at the time one of the world's largest ships.

"We landed in New York a month after the Great Depression hit," Shaddick said. "Great timing."

The family settled in the industrial community of Indiana Harbor, Ind. "We had some distant relatives there," Shaddick said.

His father became a security guard. "It was the beginning of the Depression," Shaddick said. "He was lucky to find a job."

Shaddick became a child of the Depression. His ambition in those days?

"To survive," he said. "We were street urchins. We roamed the countryside and explored. We had none of the modern things kids have today for entertainment."

While he was still in elementary school, the family moved to a small, rural community in central Indiana, near Terra Haute.

"We'd go hiking through the woods, swim in the creek," he said. "We'd gather around a Philco radio and listen to the 'Grand Ole Opry' out of Tennessee.

"We kids read some, played a lot - made up our own games."

Jobs were scarce, but Shaddick's work ethic wasn't. He sold newspapers for pocket money and said the only real money coming in was from picking strawberries.

"We'd climb into a pickup truck that would charge us 25 cents to take us to the strawberry patch," Shaddick said. "We were paid 15 cents a tray - and each tray held eight quarts of strawberries. You could pick 20 trays a day or more."

After high school he joined the Army and fought in both Europe and the Pacific.

After the war he attended Indiana University and received bachelor's and master's degrees. After graduation he worked in a steel mill until he could find a teaching job. Eventually he landed a teaching position at a high school in Portage Township, Mich.

He soon went into administration. For 18 years he was assistant principal, principal and assistant superintendent, all in the Portage School District.

And then he returned to school and received his doctorate and became superintendent of schools in Jamestown.

Although he is still in good health, Shaddick says if the job ever becomes too painful he will retire for the last time.

"If they don't close the place first," he said.