Still inspirational

WOODBRIDGE — So much for teachers taking it easy during the summer.

Sure, Diane Nothnagel and Nicholas De Rosa, who lead second-grade classrooms at Kilby Elementary School, were hanging out at the ballpark Saturday.

But the Potomac Nationals were out of town. And though Nothnagel and De Rosa were jovial, they were at Pfitzner Stadium for a serious cause.

The educators were part of a team of walkers at a Relay for Life event being held on the field where some of today’s major-leaguers have toiled.

But they were honoring not a sports hero but someone who sounds like a school hero.

That was Bill Hutchinson, who retired as Kilby’s principal in 2002 after 35 years of seeing that Prince William County children were educated.

He died from pancreatic cancer May 27, leaving behind a wife, two children, four grandkids and a whole lot of people determined to help fight the illness that ended his life after 67 years.

As of this writing, it was too early to tell how much money was raised in his memory this past weekend.

But less than a month after Hutchinson passed away, another team of walkers raised $4,100 in his name at the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network’s 5K walk in Washington.

After retiring to Culpeper, he walked in a Relay for Life for his daughter-in-law, Erica, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002 while pregnant with her first child.

I didn't know Hutchinson, but Nothnagel, waiting for Saturday's American Cancer Society event to begin, gave me a good idea of why people miss her old boss.

He was supportive of teachers as an administrator. Before coming to Kilby, Hutchinson was an assistant principal at Minnieville and Potomac View elementary schools. And once he had the big job, Nothnagel said, he would write a personal note to each teacher every year during Teacher Appreciation Week.

He had a great demeanor. He liked to joke, and Nothnagel recalled telling his wife, Pattie, "You know, I never saw him angry."

Students loved Bill Hutchinson, too, Nothnagel said, and he loved his job.

He even awoke each morning without the prompting of an alarm clock.

"He was always excited about being at work," said Nothnagel, who was wearing a royal blue Kilby T-shirt bearing a picture of the school’s tiger mascot.

Hutchinson was there for moral support for his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers and for tangible support for others, too.

His story is moving, as are those of others who inspire Relay for Life volunteers to walk around the clock at the overnight events.

But Relay for Life isn’t just a nice thing to do on a summer night, or a way to give back.

Money donated helps to spur on early cancer detection, better training for doctors and research into how to treat the disease.

An interesting side note, too: The money raised Saturday will be used right here in Prince William, Nothnagel said.

How important is this work? Consider: 36,800 Americans will die this year from pancreatic cancer alone, the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network projects.

Sounds like a big number. But what does it really mean?

More than 36,000 is roughly the population of Manassas.

This one kind of cancer—we’re not even getting into the others—will create a scenario that, at least in sheer numbers, would be the same as wiping out every person who lives in the city where I’m writing these words.

Seems like I should have been walking at Pfitzner on Saturday night instead of taking notes, huh?

Jonathan Hunley is a staff writer at the News & Messenger. Contact him at 703-369-5738 or at jhunley@insidenova.com.