Alum to speak at CSC commencement

He is Steve Gardiner, who has climbed dozens of the world’s highest mountains, has run in a half dozen marathons, including the Boston Marathon, and has gained widespread attention for promoting sustained silent reading in his classrooms. He is an English and journalism teacher at Billings Senior High School in Montana.

Gardiner graduated from Alliance High School in 1972 and Chadron State in 1977. He began climbing mountains almost immediately afterwards. He initially taught at Gillette, Wyo., and climbed nearby Devil’s Tower, which is at least 800 feet straight up, more than 100 times.

Some of his other climbing experiences include 10 peaks in the Alps of Switzerland and Italy in 1983, reaching 25,500 feet on Mount Everest in 1988, exploring Greenland and climbing 13 peaks that apparently had never been climbed before in 1996 and climbing Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa, in 2002 and Aconcagua, the highest peak in South America, in 2005

He has written three books on his climbing experiences, including “Under the Midnight Sun,” that told about the Greenland expedition, in 2003. Last year, he wrote “Building Student Literacy Through Sustained Silent Reading,” which explains his philosophy that reading leads to learning, even if it is for pleasure. He has been promoting the practice in his classes since he began teaching 30 years ago.

More than 500 articles that he wrote have been published.

In 1990 while teaching at Jackson Hole High School in Wyoming, Gardiner was one of 78 teachers from across the country selected for inclusion in a book “I Am A Teacher,” published by Simon and Schuster. His story was one of six spotlighted by Teacher Magazine in its final issue that year. He was featured a second time in “I Am A Teacher” on how he used his “Mount Everest experience” to motivate his students.

From 1991 through 1997, he was a member of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards committee which developed the standards for certification of high school English teachers. In 1998-99, he was the writer for the middle school standards committee.

He coached the Billings Senior High girls’ cross-country team to the Montana Class AA girls’ state championship last fall.

Gardiner’s wife Peggy graduated from Billings Senior High and Eastern Montana College (now Montana State University-Billings). She teaches at the Orchard Elementary School in Billings. The couple has three daughters.

Gardiner’s parents, Wallace and Lavone Gardiner, reside in Gillette, Mont., where they moved from Alliance in 1976.

The speaker at the college’s graduate commencement at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, May 6 will be Dr. Allen Shepherd, CSC professor of history who is beginning a phased retirement this summer.

 

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