By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

“It’s been a good run.” Those are the words of Peebles High School principal Steve Appelman as the sun sets for him on a career in education that has spanned 41 years, the last nine as principal at Peebles. Appelman’s career has seen him on both sides of the Ohio River, working as a teacher and then principal in Kentucky, before making the move to Ohio to close it out. This will be his final year before going into a well-deserved retirement phase of his life, joining his wife Marjorie who is a retired teacher already in the Bluegrass State, and it’s safe to see they will see the world together.

Steve Appelman grew up in the beautiful village of Augusta, Kentucky, along with his two brothers and five sisters, in the place his parents were also born and raised. The Appelman family was an education family as Appelman has a sister who is a Physical Education teacher, a brother who is a Math teacher and another sister who is a Business teacher.

“My father was the mayor of Augusta and he impressed upon us about service to the community and I think that is probably why so many of use went into the education field,” Appelman explained. “I watched my Dad every day get up and put in a full day of work at Clopay in Augusta and then after that he had another full-time job as the mayor and he was a great role model to have. My mother was a stay-at-home Mom in charge of eight kids. They had a clothing business for a few years and an ice cream store for like 10 years. Augusta was a great place to grow up, community-minded, a lot like Peebles,” said Appelman.

Appelman graduated from Augusta High School (one year ahead of George Clooney) then went on to Eastern Kentucky University where he first flirted with the idea of being a lawyer, but always had a fascination with history and he liked those classes so much that it made him think that he might really want to be a teacher. He got his administrative degree from Morehead State and his teaching career began as a Bulldog at the old Maysville High School, teaching History, a place he describes as a great setting and a great learning experience. While at Maysville, Appelman also got into coaching basketball, something he continued after the Maysville merger with Mason County High School. He also coached basketball at Mason County, a job coveted by many over the years.

Along the way, and perhaps fittingly, Appelman met his future wife at a basketball game.

“I was coaching a ball game that she came to. We met and started dating for a couple of years and now have three grown sons,” he said. All of their sons are quite successful – the oldest, Connor, teaches at the Harvard Medical School, the middle son, Daniel is in the sports world, having worked for the Cincinnati Reds and Lexington Legends, and the youngest son Garrett is a History teacher in Oldham County, Kentucky.

After 32 years in the Kentucky educational system as a teacher and an administrator, Appelman says he just began to think that he wasn’t really ready to retire.

“I was just looking to spend about five years here at Peebles and then I got over here and loved the situation with a group of teachers that really work hard and are very professional and that’s why I ended up staying longer,” Appelman says. “This situation here in Peebles I think I enjoy so much that I don’t mind the 50-minute drive. The people you work with and the situation a lot of times will determine what kind of enjoyment you will have. I turn 65 next July and the past couple of years have got me thinking that it might be time to go.”

“People talk about family and family makes a big difference whether it’s your church or school and how it’s run and that’s what you have here at Peebles,” Appelman says. “People really care about this school. When people have that kind of interest and care, it makes a huge difference. I’ve seen the love that people have for this community. People ask me what the difference is between here and Mason County and there’s really none, it’s just that the people here have such a great love for their school and the area. When I met everyone my first year here, I could tell it was a great professional staff. When you have good people working with you, it makes your job easier. Our teachers just work hard every day.”

When Appelman is away from school, his main hobby is an easy one to see, he and his wife are travelers, world travelers at that and his urge see the sights of the world came from a traveling salesman when he was younger, a story many of our generation can relate to.

“I was about nine years old and my mom bought this set of encyclopedias. Of course, the salesman comes to the house and sees she has a bunch of kids and of course, mom bought them. The Wonders of the World were in the back and I looked at it and that’s where I began to be enthralled with seeing all these places like the pyramids, and we went to the pyramids last summer. I have no idea how many countries we have traveled to, but we love everything about traveling because it’s always something different and some new challenge. We’re thinking about returning to Italy for our next trip and I want to go to India and see the Taj Mahal because it was in that encyclopedia.” (You can find stories of the Appelman’s travels in the Maysville Ledger Independent where Marjorie is a frequent writer.)

“When I first started in education, I just wanted to help kids, ” Appelman explains. “When you have a love of something like I do history, you want to project that to kids. Once I became an administrator it was like the philosophy changed to looking out for kids, protecting them or trying to steer them in the right direction for their future.”

“I’ve enjoyed my time here at Peebles immensely. It’s been a good run,” Appelman said in closing.