Hunter ed teacher retires

NEWPORT – After providing hunter education to thousands of students, Greg A. Koehn is retiring from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife hunter education program.

Koehn will turn the Pend Oreille County hunter education program over to Mike Kirkwood.

Koehn says he is proud of his work as a hunter educator. He taught classes at the Newport and Metaline Falls gun clubs, at Rotary Park in Oldtown, at the Cusick American Legion and many other places.

“I am most proud to say that none of our students have ever had a hunting incident, meaning we must have done something right,” Koehn says. He’s held yearly classes with as many as 450 students.

Koehn was also named Washington Hunter Instructor of the Year in 2011, No. 1 of 1,100 instructors. He also finished runner up several times.

He says that he has had a lot of good help with the program.

“An instructor is only as good as the folks he/ she has around them,” Koehn says, “and I was certainly blessed with the best!”

Koehn is quick to point out that he had many fellow instructors over the years. He expressed thanks to them, as well as the businesses, students and parents that supported the hunter education classes.

Koehn looks back fondly at the memories of working with the many friends, students, parents, businesses, gun clubs and members of the Pend Oreille Sportsman’s Club for making the Pend Oreille Hunter Education Group a success.

“This is by all means not a goodbye but a chance to express my gratitude/pleasure to all that contributed to the success of The Pend Oreille Hunter Education Group,” he says. “If I can leave you with just one thought, as we did with each class, ‘If in doubt, don’t.’”