Dad, Grandpa...Rest in Peace

There's No Place Like Space
Originally uploaded by noseycat

Dean L. Scherman
Born November 17, 1951 | Deceased October 10, 2009

Dean was raised by Herbert and Naomi Scherman on their farm just north of Paola where Dean learned his notable work ethic. He was a member of 4-H and was involved in several school activities while excelling in the classroom. After graduating from Paola High School in 1970, Dean attended Kansas State University earning a Bachelor of Science Degree in Radio & Television Broadcasting. At Emporia State University he earned his Master’s Degree in Physical Science Education.

He and Angela Butel were married at Holy Trinity Church in Paola on August 7, 1976. Together they raised three children, Nathan, Deanna, and Lee. Their children were the joy and focus of their lives.
After teaching and living in Osage City, KS for two years, Dean, Angela, and Nathan moved back to Paola in 1979 and Dean began his 27 year teaching career at Paola High School where he taught Electronics, Principals of Technology, and his favorite class, Physics. He loved being at school to interact with and teach students. He was very energetic and positive in the classroom. He loved to make learning fun with exciting experiments, hands on projects, and using riddles and jokes to help his students learn.
His involvement with his students also led him to participate in events like Solar Powered Electric Car Races and the passion of his last 7 years, Panther Robotics. Dean mentored with fellow instructor Harold Homrighausen, ,”H”, the Solar Powered Electric Car team which participated and fared well in several state wide events, winning their first race. His daughter, Deanna, was also a part of that team. Being able to work with H and Deanna was the highlight of that experience for him.

In 2002, Dean was presented an opportunity to mentor a group of students as a team in US FIRST Robotics. He agreed to mentor and alongside several teachers, volunteers and a team of 10 students, including his son Lee, Panther Robotics was born. The success of Panther Robotics speaks for itself. They won the first Regional Competition they entered in 2003 also winning the Rookie All-Star Award which is the most prestigious award attainable for first year teams. They followed that up by winning the Rookie All-Star Award at the National Competition as well. Since then the success has continued, winning many awards, including five Regional Chairman awards, the highest award given at Regional Competitions, in the six years since their rookie season.

Dean’s dedication to Robotics inspired him to join the original Kansas City Regional Planning Committee which helped boost the number of participating schools in the Kansas City area. At the 2009 Greater Kansas City Regional competition, Dean was honored as the Outstanding Volunteer of the Year. Though seeking personal awards was never a goal for him, he was deeply moved and proud to be recognized for his efforts.

Dean’s love for teaching and his children led him to coach many ball teams over the years. Whether it was soccer, basketball, softball, or baseball, Dean thoroughly enjoyed working with his children. He spent countless hours playing in the yard, teaching them to throw and catch baseballs, softballs, and footballs, or shoot hoops in the driveway. He was very proud of his sons and daughter in their sporting events; win or lose.

All three children were also involved in 4-H just as Dean and Angela were during their childhood years. He and Angela became actively involved as Community Leaders in Progressive 4-H club, with Dean eventually joining the Miami County Fair Association, serving on the Board for many years. Dean and Angela volunteered together organizing, leading, and participating in events like camps, Interstate Exchange Trips, 4-H Ambassadors, and the annual highlight, the Miami County Fair. Both have enjoyed the interaction with 4-Hers from all over the county and especially enjoy the many friendships they have made through the years. During the 2009 fair, Dean and Angela were initiated into the Miami County Fair Hall of Fame in honor of their dedication to the 4-H organization.

In March 2009, Dean became a grandfather with the birth of Emma Jean Scherman, daughter of Nathan and his wife Colleen. Instantly a proud grandpa, Dean loved holding and playing with Emma at every opportunity and began trying to teach her anything he could, especially using sign language to say “grandpa”.

In May 2009, Dean was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Once the severity of the disease was determined, plans were made to help Dean realize one of his childhood dreams; witnessing NASA launch a spacecraft into orbit. With assistance from fellow Robotics mentors, his story reached the Guest Relations department at Kennedy Space Center. They invited the entire family to take a personal tour of the KSC facilities, which allowed them to be close enough for Dean to touch one of the Space Shuttles while it was being prepared for its next launch. One of his favorite memories in the last several months of his life was taking that trip with his family to the Orlando area which also included a trip to Sea World and his first time ever in an ocean while at Cocoa Beach.

Dean had a positive impact on so many lives. Whether that impact is great or small, we all have our own memories to keep with us and lessons learned that we can pass on to keep his legacy as a teacher alive for a long time to come.

To read articles written in the Miami County Republic about Dad, click the following links.

Scherman Leaves Lasting Legacy

Paola Will Greatly Miss Dean Scherman

A Memorable Endeavor - July 2009

Emma is 6 months old!

At least one of us was smiling. :-)
Originally uploaded by noseycat

It is hard to believe it has been 6 months already since Emma was born, but I guess time flies when you are having fun! Emma is now sitting up very well and even starting to scoot a little bit when she is motivated enough. It is quite enjoyable to watch her to to figure out the quickest way, rolling or scooting, to get to a toy just out of her reach. She had her 6 month doctor appointment which went very well and she seems to be growing just fine. She also battled through her first cold which caused a few restless nights, but we made it through. We were also able to make it in for our first professional family photo shoot and Emma was a very cooperative girl which made it hard on us to pick which poses to print.

Miss Personality

Sweetheart Emma
Originally uploaded by noseycat

Emma is just over 5 months old now and is really starting to develop a fun personality. She laughs often and does her best to make her parents laugh too! Her second cousin, Joel, loaned us his bouncer this month and she thoroughly enjoys it. Thank you Joel, AJ, and Bridget! Her favorite activity right now is to bounce up and down while yelling and laughing to explore her voice. She has also become a big fan of playing with her feet, sometimes even putting them in her mouth. It is amazing how quickly she has changed over the past 5 months.

We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful child to light up our days as we work through some tough times with Grandpa Scherman's health.

Emma at 4 months

Happy camper in Orlando, FL
Originally uploaded by noseycat

Emma is now 4 months old and she's doing great! Her 4 month appointment measurements showed her at 88% on length, 50% on weight, and 64% on head circumference so she is growing perfectly! Her 4th month of life was filled with quite a bit of excitement for anyone, much less a 4 month old who will never remember any of it.

She experienced her first July 4th fireworks displays, her first airplane flight, first time to Kennedy Space Center in Florida, first time at Sea World, and first time in the Atlantic Ocean! There will be much more on that trip in the near future, but Emma was great through it all and helped make the trip to Orlando even more enjoyable than expected.

Emma at 3 Months!

3 months old
Originally uploaded by noseycat

Emma's 3 month birthday was Saturday June 13. She has really grown and changed a lot in the past 90+ days, but she is still adorable and has really been a great baby with lots of smiling, laughing and cooing. Colleen and I are really enjoying parenthood and it is safe to say this little girl has us completely wrapped around her finger! Click on the picture or link below it to see more pictures from the past few weeks.

Emma's Baptism

Happy girl
Originally uploaded by noseycat

Emma was Baptized into the Catholic Church Sunday May 24, 2009 at St. Pius X Church in Mission, KS. Her Godparents are my siblings, Deanna and Lee, who were both happy to be selected as Emma's Godparents, even if Lee doesn't show it in the pictures :-)

As you can see in this picture, Emma was in a great mood while we were at church and made it through the ceremony without crying at all. The dress and headband she wore that day were both hand made by my mother, Angela, and Emma was absolutely adorable.

After the ceremony we all went to a family diner for lunch and a beautiful cake made by Colleen's mother, Mary Jo, which was delicious.

Click the picture or "Happy girl" link below to see more pictures from Emma's big day.

Emma - Weeks 9 & 10

More pics here
Originally uploaded by noseycat

Here are a few pictures of Emma during weeks 9 and 10 of her life. We are starting to give her "tummy time" more often so she can build the muscles which she will need to start crawling. For now we usually prop her up on Colleen's Boppy pillow so she can look around easier until she is able to push herself up with her arms.

Emma meets Kyah

More pictures here
Originally uploaded by noseycat

The weekend of May 2nd, the Scherman family traveled to Augusta, KS to meet up with the Bell family who had traveled from Hereford, TX. Erin Bell and I (Nate) are first cousins which makes Kyah and Emma second cousins. We met at Erin's parents' house for the weekend which included a very nice baby shower for the Bell family. This was the first time Kyah had been to her grandparents' home and obviously the first time the two girls have met. Kyah was born just 10 days after Emma and both little girls are absolutely adorable! Needless to say, Colleen and I will keep a close eye on miss Kyah as she grows up at the same time as Emma.

Emma - weeks 5 & 6

Cutie Pie
Originally uploaded by noseycat

Pictures of weeks 5 and 6 of Emma's life. She is really starting to smile and laugh a lot. We also took Emma to her first professional sporting event - New York Red Bulls at Kansas City Wizards in a Thursday night ESPN2 soccer match.

Easter Weekend

Mom and Emma
Originally uploaded by noseycat

Pictures from the Scherman grandparents' house Easter 2009.

Emma week 3 & 4

Sleeping on daddy
Originally uploaded by noseycat

More pictures of Emma as she grows every day. These are pictures from weeks 3 and 4 since her birth. Enjoy!

Sitting on daddy's lap

Hi Bright Eyes
Originally uploaded by noseycat

Emma is now a week old and doing great! Her face and head have healed almost completely from the forceps bruising she had at birth. Now mommy and daddy are learning to adjust to little Emma's schedule! Click on the picture to see more of her since we have been home.

Emma enters the world!

Emma's first two days
Originally uploaded by noseycat

Click the picture to see more from Emma's first few days of life at the hospital.

Hello Emma Jean!

As many of you know, Colleen and I became pregnant on the wonderful honeymoon I last blogged about. Just about 9 months later, our lives have taken the next step and a drastic change with the arrival of our first child: Emma Jean. Emma was born Friday the 13th of March, 2009 and we couldn't be more happy than we are right now!

The actual delivery was quite the adventure. Colleen and I went to the hospital Thursday night to begin the inducing process and just minutes short of 24 hours later, our little miss Emma was born! The unfortunate part is Colleen started the pushing process around 5:20pm Friday and kept going for two and half hours! It turns out that Emma was sunny-side up or facing upward instead of the preferred face downward which makes it very difficult to get the baby's head into the correct position for delivery. The typical resolution for this predicament is to use forceps to turn the head into the proper position which is what the doctor did after it was obvious (2 hours later) that Colleen was completely worn out and Emma was not going to come out on her own.

This is where the story get interesting. The doctor puts the forceps in place (which looked about as painful as anything I have ever seen) to move her little head and steps back to make sure everything looks right when he tripped over the chair, lost his balance and began falling backward. Since the delivery was a non-standard, many nurses were in the room to assist in case of emergency. Two of those nurses stepped forward to try to catch him with one catching an elbow or forearm in the face! Our doctor is a pretty big guy, so I can only imagine the force with which he hit her, but it gave her a bloody nose and made her very woozy. So woozy in fact, that two of the nurses who were in the room had to escort the poor woman to the ER to get checked out. Meanwhile, the doctor fell all the way to his back along with another nurse who was trying to help keep him up. SO, now we have forceps sticking out of Colleen, our doctor and nurse on the floor and another nurse in need of her own medical attention!

After the madness settled, Doc got up, changed scrubs and gloves and got right back to Colleen. I think she got a little bit of a boost from the adrenaline from watching this whole scene unfold before her, and she was able to push in unison with Doc pulling the forceps well enough for Emma Jean to be born into this world at 7:53pm CST. She weighed in at 8 pounds, 11.8 ounces and 20.5 inches in length. As you can see in the pictures, she was born with a full head of dark brown hair which is just beautiful! We are both very proud parents and both set of grandparents are very proud as well!

I will continue to post updates and pictures of our little Angel as time allows and we look forward to introducing her to all of our family and friends!